Record year for Cordilleran Roundup

Vancouver — The Mineral Exploration Roundup conference, held recently in Vancouver, attracted a record 5,200 delegates, compared with 3,900 registered delegates in early 2004.

The British Columbia & Yukon Chamber of Mines, which organized the event, conceded that attendance was bolstered by booming commodities prices in the metals and minerals sector. Another positive factor was the high priority the provincial government has been giving to exploration and development, as evidenced by such initatives as super flow-through financing.

The province is home to more than 60% of Canada’s mining and exploration companies, but in recent years those companies have explored predominantly outside the province. In 2004, the tide began to change, as companies spent a total of more than $130 million in British Columbia, compared with $63 million in 2003.

Richard Neufeld, the province’s mines minister, delivered the welcoming address. “Mining is back in B.C., and B.C. is back because mining and resource industries are back,” he remarked. “We have Canada’s second-strongest economy and second-best investment climate, second only to Alberta. Our exploration industry is booming: four-hundred and seventy major projects were under way in 2004, up eighty-eight per cent from 2003. B.C.’s resource industries account for about two-thirds of provincial exports — more than $22 billion, or 13% of our gross domestic product.”

The provincial government outlined its new Mining Plan, which stresses First Nations and other communities, protection for workers and the natural environment, global competitiveness, and access to land.

The plan also calls for smoother permitting procedures, online permitting, and increased investment in geosciences.

British Columbia recently launched its Mineral Titles Online (MTO) program, which makes it possible to “e-stake” mineral claims. The web site received about 2.5 million hits in its first day; during the first eight days of the program, roughly 12,000 sq. km were e-staked.

Roughly 20 significant mineral projects in the province are at an advanced stage of development, and more than half of those at at the environmental assessment stage.

“For the first time in memory, the TSX Venture exchange actually led the senior board [TSX] in terms of mining-listed financings,” boasted Michael Gray, president of the British Columbia & Yukon Chamber of Mines. “Most of those financings occurred in Vancouver.”