The Opposition New Democrats are pointing fingers at the Liberal government over a botched uranium mining permit that ended up costing British Columbia taxpayers $30 million.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix said Monday he wants to know who in the government ordered bureaucrats not to process a work permit from Vancouver mining company Boss Power Corp.

"Clearly, the government acknowledged in its own court documents that it broke the law and that cost us money," Dix said outside of the legislature, following a series of exchanges with Energy and Mines Minister Rich Coleman during question period.

"This is an attempt to deflect what is obvious in the court records. They ordered public servants not to follow the law, and that's a serious mistake."

The government announced last week it negotiated the $30-million settlement with Boss Power for the company's uranium mining rights near Penticton, but the settlement was made just hours before a Boss Power lawsuit against the government was to be heard in court.

Court documents say government mining officials were told to ignore the firm's mining work order despite advice from the Ministry of the Attorney General that said government had a legal obligation to consider the mine.

During question period, Coleman said the B.C. cabinet decided days after Boss Power applied for the uranium permit in April 2008 to place a moratorium on uranium mining in B.C.

Coleman said the government knew when it decided to place the moratorium that there may be outstanding issues with mining interests, but decided the move was in the best interests of the province.

"It was the right decision not to go ahead with uranium mining in British Columbia," he said. "We knew at that time there may be some tenures that have some claims."

Coleman said the government placed money in a reserve fund for future use to negotiate with companies who had uranium claims at the time of the moratorium.

Coleman did not say how much money was in the moratorium fund.

Coleman also suggested that B.C. mining bureaucrats decided themselves not to process the work order by Boss Power because they were aware of the mining moratorium and the government's compensation plans.

"They were acting on the basis that government had made a decision," he said in the legislature.

But the court documents say the government's chief mines inspector was advised the notice of work should not be processed and approval for the work should not be granted.

The chief inspector was then removed from the file, the court documents show.

Coleman also engaged in his own finger pointing. He noted the former NDP government of the 1990s stripped a Prince George logging company of its timber rights, but was eventually forced to pay the company more than $30 million and hand the company over 1.5 million cubic metres of forest, stumpage free.

Coleman said the New Democrats admitted their attempt to cover up the cancellation of Carrier Lumber's timber-cutting licence to appease two area First Nations who didn't want the land logged.

The Liberals, who were in Opposition at the time, called for the resignation of former NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh, with then Opposition Liberal leader Gordon Campbell calling it "one of the blackest abuses of power in the history of this province."

The uranium mining dispute comes weeks after Premier Christy Clark unveiled a $300-million jobs plan that includes promises of eight new B.C. mines by 2015 and nine upgrades to existing mining operations.