Quebec’s Plan Nord relaunch is on track, despite the closing of the big Bloom Lake iron ore mine in Quebec-Labrador, because it rests firmly on a key long-term economic and social base, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Pierre Arcand said Monday.
Arcand, responsible for Plan Nord, was backed by a bevy of mining and energy industry leaders at the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal’s Resource Strategy Forum in identifying major projects worth several billion dollars that will find financing once global metal markets turn around.
Quebec has to compete in oversupplied markets and the turnaround may take two years, they said. But developing new iron, base metals and gold mines can take about five years and 12 to 15 years for diamonds, they said, so Quebec must start preparing for the upturn now.
An environmental group protested against the province’s mining and energy policies outside the Palais des congrès de Montréal before the forum began, but the doors remained open.
Arcand said the government’s job is to focus on improving infrastructure in a region “twice the size of France” when replying to industry players who put top priority on cost-cutting in the face of intense global competition and Quebec’s long distance from Asia — driver of the next upturn.
“Iron ore overcapacity won’t last forever and we’re trying all we can to help find a solution to Bloom Lake,” Arcand said. “But the private sector must bear the brunt of the technological and financial burden.”
U.S.-based Cleveland Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. said last month it would exit Bloom Lake with closing costs running to US$700 million. Two years ago, it paid almost US$5 billion for the mine, processing plant and massive reserves.
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