Mining industry representatives said they are hopeful Ontario's updated Mineral Development Strategy, which was released Dec. 11 in Sudbury, will provide more certainty for the sector.
“Certainty is important,” said Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association. “If you have a good framework within the mineral development strategy that framework actually gives you the certainty to move forward.”
In a related announcement Friday, Clark and his association benefited from a $5 million investment from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to create a Junior Exploration Assistance Program, that would provide support for mineral exploration projects.
“It will be a rebate on exploration they do in the province,” Clark said. “If they spend $300,000 they'll get 30 per cent of the money back. They can use that to do more exploration.”
Michael Gravelle, Ontario's minister of Northern Development and Mines, said the province's investment in junior exploration is one example of how the mineral development strategy could encourage discovery rates and foster the mining sector.
“The overall strategy itself is so focused on working with our partners to keep us a competitive environment,” Gravelle said.
The new strategy, which updates Ontario's previous Mineral Development Strategy developed in 2006, builds on four strategic priorities.
They are to foster a competitive and innovative mining sector; to ensure the mining industry is safe and innovative; to promote an industry that is efficiently and effectively regulated; and to ensure the mining industry provides growth and prosperity for future generations.
The updated Mineral Development Strategy comes in the aftermath of Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk's 2015 annual report, which was critical of the provincial government's lack of progress in the Ring of Fire and in promoting Ontario’s mineral resources.
Ontario’s mining industry comprises almost a quarter of Canada’s total mineral production, and was worth almost $11 billion in 2014.
But the auditor general's report found exploration spending dropped from a high of more than $1 billion in 2011 to $507 million in 2014. The number of active mining claims in 2014 was 235,000 units, a decline of 363,000 units in 2008.
The auditor general also found no evidence a detailed plan or timeline for developing the Ring of Fire chromite deposit, which the province described as the “discovery of the century” in 2008.
“We were working over the last number of years with a federal government that was not prepared to work in a true partnership with us in terms of some of the extraordinary resources needed to move this project,”
Gravelle said, responding to the auditor general's report. “We're now positioned differently in that regard, and I'm looking forward to working with the federal government.”
Gravelle said that while the provincial government has not yet spent any of its promised $1 billion to build a transportation corridor for the Ring of Fire, he said that money remains earmarked for the project's development.
“The important thing about the $1 billion is that it's locked in and committed from the province of Ontario,” he said.
“We don't control commodity pricing, but the industry is cyclical. We're in a tough period right now, but it will come back,” Gravelle added.
The province will be ready to invest in Ring of Fire infrastructure when the mining sector bounces back and commodity prices improve, Gravelle said.
“This mineral development strategy does in many ways address a number of the issues that the auditor general brought forward,” he added.
Chris Hodgson, president of the Ontario Mining Association, said he is pleased the updated Mineral Development Strategy could provide more clarity for the sector.
“There are a lot of places that have good geology, but there are very few places that have clear rules, honestly applied, that you know if you find a deposit you can bring it into production,” he said.
