VANCOUVER — The Association for Mineral Exploration’s (AME) Roundup conference in Vancouver serves as a bellwether for the mining industry as the first major technical event of the new year.
The most-recent iteration featured the typical discussions on metal prices and markets, but it was also marked the maiden mining voyage for British Columbia’s newly-elected, left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) and Green Party coalition government. The NDP-led minority government’s stance on mining in the province remains untested.
Premier John Horgan has been rhetorically supportive of the business, and held over pro-mining initiatives from the previous long-standing Liberal government, including the flow-through share tax framework and exploration credits; funding for Geoscience BC; and provincial sales tax (PST) breaks for electricity used at mine sites.
Meanwhile, B.C.’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Michelle Mungall is working with industry groups — including the AME — on the BC Mining Jobs Task Force.
Conversely, the NDP has taken a relatively combative stance on the oil industry in its approach to the Kinder Morgan (TSX: KML; NYSE: KMI) Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion.
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