https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Gino Chitaroni is president of Kirkland Lake’s Northern Prospectors Association and is an Ontario Prospectors Association board member.
Junior mining sector needs support, province needs to get more competitive to spawn next generation of mines, says industry leader
Without a doubt, one of the most important challenges facing the next generation is global warming and the need to decarbonize the transportation sector. This can only happen with the sustainable development of new mines that produce the copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium and other critical minerals that can be found throughout Northern Ontario’s rich geology.
However, it is the junior exploration sector that has traditionally found economic mineral deposits that are sold to majors who have the financial capacity to build these new mines. This important and vital part of the mining ecosystem is largely being ignored by the Ontario government.
I have been in exploration sector for over 40 years, the last 10 as head of Kirkland Lake’s Northern Prospectors Association. After attending the annual PDAC mining convention in Toronto a few weeks ago, it was clearly evident that the junior exploration sector was not in good health due to a variety of challenges that has slowed down and could potentially derail Ontario’s much vaulted Critical Minerals Strategy.
While both provincial and federal governments have spent tens of billions of dollars to attract the next generation of electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plants, Ontario has done almost nothing to support the companies and prospectors that will find the critical minerals needed to build the batteries essential for these operations.
For the rest of this article: https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/industry-news/mining/opinion-ford-government-ignores-vital-exploration-sector-8488724