Parks won’t help Saskatchewan prosper

I am writing to you to voice my opinion about a proposal by the World Wildlife Federation to create Crown Reserves in Saskatchewan, in particular, north of Athabasca Lake.

Great Western Gold is pursuing a rare-earth project west of one of the proposed wildlife parks.

It is my understanding that these areas were chosen on grounds that they have low mineral potential. The area directly east of our rare-earth project has very good potential.

We don’t believe eco-tourism can replace the revenue stream that mining provides for Saskatchewan. Thirty-five to 40 years ago, the Athabasca basin was considered to have low mineral potential. If the proposal for eco-parks happened then, billions of dollars in mining revenue would have been lost.

I hope you consider this before removing these areas from exploration and development. To expect to make an assessment of these extremely large areas with some sort of summer program is arrogant. It takes many years to develop an area for mineral potential. These areas lack exploration efforts, not potential.

We believe you could be taking future mines and revenue away from the people of Saskatchewan. These minerals belong to the people of Saskatchewan, not to the World Wildlife Federation or any other special interest group.

Great Western Gold has contacted several Japanese corporations ready and able to purchase our rare-earth metals and oxides when our project reaches production. If these areas remain off limits, future rare-earth mines may never get developed. Is Saskatchewan open for business or not?

Todd Montgomery

Director, Great Western Gold

Calgary, Alta.

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