Editorial Mining a poor cousin in New Brunwick

More investment dollars continue to be spent on precious metals exploration in Canada than on base metals. This despite base metals reserves dwindling and base metals prices booming. The reason, perhaps, is partly that Canadian investors are not informed of the potential for finding base metals mines in this country. Take one of our more prolific base metals camps as an example — the Bathurst camp in northern New Brunswick.

Much of the blame for the dearth of information on Bathurst is the lack of funding for the mining side of the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources & Energy. Because of this lack of funding, government geologists have missed important investment seminars and conferences in Canada and the United States. This is an unforgivable oversight for a province which produces $468 million worth of base and precious metals annually and is host to a geological formation with the potential to produce a lot more mines. Poor old Newfoundland, by contrast, which produces only $24.8 million in base and precious metals annually, has yet to miss a significant conference in the past year. The surge in exploration activity there is rewarding these efforts.

When the Frank McKenna Liberals rolled into the New Brunswick legislature in 1987 indications were the tide had changed. Mines Minister Morris Green, who has some work experience in the industry as a till sampler, has impressed those in the industry with his sympathy.

“Comparing Morris Green to his predecessor is like night and day,” says Donald Burton, secretary of the New Brunswick Prospector and Developers Association. “Green writes and says thank you. All kinds of things we never had before.”

But the fact remains — New Brunswick is the only mining province in Canada without a separate mines department. That means the concerns of those in the mining industry play second fiddle to the timber industry. As an example of the imbalance between forestry and mining, a single government forestry office in Bathurst has a larger budget than the entire mining side of the province’s department of natural resources. What’s infuriating is that the mining industry contributed $10.4 million in tax revenue to the province in 1987 while forestry contributed $21.9 million. Mining too, employs about a third as many people in New Brunswick as does forestry.

If as little as 5% of the province’s $40-million forestry budget was to go to mining, the mining budget would double. Clearly Premier McKenna and Green should pay more than just lip service to the mining industry. They could beef up the mining budget in New Brunswick, hire additional professional geological staff and take a more active role promoting their province.