EDITORIAL PAGE — Hug a miner — “We want to be wanted.”

Such strange words to be uttered publicly by a mining type. But they were used by Alex Balogh, president and chief executive of Noranda Minerals, at a news conference announcing the Whitehorse Mining Initiative.

And they accurately reflect what the industry needs here in Canada — the hearty reception it attracts almost anywhere else in the world. Chile, Venezuela, Guyana, Mexico, Sweden, Greenland, Mongolia — it’s difficult to think of a country that hasn’t recently revamped its mining laws to accommodate the world’s best mine-finders. Here in Canada, the reverse has occurred.

The Whitehorse Initiative, officially launched at the recent annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in Toronto, is an attempt to change the industry’s fortunes in its native land. During the next 12-to-18 months, a group drawn from provincial, territorial and federal governments and from business, labor, environmental and aboriginal groups will develop “a common vision and strategy for the responsible development of Canada’s mining industry.”

This is called a “multi-stakeholder approach . . . to find common ground and forge new alliances and to craft a comprehensive action plan animated by a coherent and consistent vision . . .”

Unfortunately, our skepticism rises in direct proportion to the amount of flowery verbiage with which these inititatives are launched. And this initiative was accompanied by plenty of wordy bouquets.

That concern aside, the Whitehorse Mining Initiative is an important step in the right direction. The industry must reach out to the key groups that affect its livelihood. It must explain to those outsiders what it does and how it does it, because the lack of understanding, the misinformation and just plain ignorance among the general population are appalling. In this situation, mining’s opponents can make the wildest claims (on its environmental record, for example) and make them sound plausible. If, over the next year or so, the Whitehorse Initiative achieves what all those nice words say is its mandate, we will be the first to cheer. After all, it feels good to be wanted.