Industry must move faster, Bacon warns

Canada’s mining industry must move faster if it wants to compete in new global markets which demand high-quality metals at competitive prices.

That was the nub of a speech Quebec Energy Minister Lise Bacon gave recently to a group of predominantly male metal executives.

Bacon bluntly stated that Canada’s mining industry has been slow to exploit the country’s natural resources to keep customers and environmentalists happy. “The emergence of a society based on sustainable (or responsible) development will have a direct effect on the mining industry,” Bacon told the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) at its 94th annual meeting here.

“The new rules of doing business will obviously create new costs for these companies. And it becomes a major challenge to ensure that the industry will survive,” she said.

“One area where the industry must become more dynamic is in mineral exploration.”

“This country has reached an age where the easily accessible orebodies are almost mined out. Now you have to look further afield and you must probe deeper into the ground to find new reserves of high-grade ore.” In an interview later, Bill Stanley, a mining consultant from Vancouver and president of the CIM, partially agreed with Bacon’s observations. But he argued that the lack of mineral exploration in this country is as much a result of government policy as industry lethargy.

“It really bothers me when I hear Canada’s mining industry described as old or over-the-hill,” said Stanley. “Sure we’re old in the sense that we’ve been around since the founding of this country. But we produce $40 billion worth of goods and services which makes up more than a quarter of this country’s gross national product. In addition, we employ more than 100,000 Canadians. “Yet the federal and provincial governments are imposing more taxes on us while cutting back incentives for mining exploration. In addition, we are faced with environmental costs that are among the highest in the world.” Stanley pointed out that less-developed countries such as Chile or Indonesia are throwing exploration incentives at multinational mining companies, many of which are based in Canada.

And the day could come when these companies will have head offices here but do most of their mining abroad.

— The Montreal Gazette