FREE TRADE OPTIMISM
The following is from a speech delivered to the Mineral Development Forum in early December last year in Toronto by Maureen Farrow, a partner of the Coopers & Lybrand Consulting Group.
The all-important U.S. market is now opened up to us as a result of the signing of the Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. accounts for almost 60% of Canada’s mineral and metal exports. The Free Trade Agreement ensures secured market access. Mining companies no longer need to spend long hours and large sums of legal fees to defend their share of the U.S. market.
The FTA is expected to benefit in particular the value-added primary processing stages of the mineral supply chain. To capitalize on this development, the maintenance of research and development on mineral processing will be very important.
As some of the medium-to-high U.S. tariffs come off during the 1990s, we can expect the creation of new market opportunities. This includes refined magnesium, roasted molybdenum and ferosilicon, to name a few.
MINING THE FINAL FRONTIER
Lunar mining can no longer be dismissed as just another looney idea. Consider the following: In its 1988 yearbook of mining trends, the U.S. Bureau of Mines notes that “(the) nation’s space mission planners intended to decide early in the 1990s on the major focus of the civilian space program, and mining considerations were featured strongly in the deliberations.”
Extraterrestrial mining, specifically moon mining, will be a reality by the early 21st century. Lunar settlement, in the form of manned scientific outposts for moon-based space telescopes, could be mining materials to support human presence quite early in the next century.
DRILLING SMOKERS
Ancient black smokers submerged off the west coast will be drilled in 1991 by the Geological Survey of Canada in an attempt to advance our understanding of ore-forming processes. The target base metal deposit is 200 km west of Vancouver Island in the Middle Valley of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Besides gaining new insight into the formation and geological conditions of base metal deposits, the research will provide information on changing climatic conditions over the past 100,000 years. The project was approved by the planning committee of the Ocean Drilling Program.
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