British Columbia had record spending on mineral exploration in 2022 and there are eight new mines or mine expansions in the queue, Premier David Eby said Monday at the opening of the Association of Mineral Exploration (AME) Roundup conference in Vancouver.
Eby said there was $740 million spent in mineral exploration in B.C. in 2022 – a record – and mineral production in B.C. is also expected to be a record: $18.2 billion.
That’s a $4.3 billion increase over 2021. That increase in value over 2021 was largely due to high metallurgical coal prices, said Gordon Clarke of the BC Geological Survey’s development office. Steelmaking coal prices hit a high of US$670 per tonne last year, and remains relatively high at close to US$300 per tonne.
B.C. has seven operating metallurgical coal mines. Eby said there was an 84% increase in copper exploration in 2022, much of that concentrated in northwest B.C. in the so-called Golden Triangle.
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