EDITORIAL & OPINION — FACTS ‘N’ FIGURES — Canadian mineral value drops in 1998

The overall value of Canada’s mineral production fell by 12.3% in 1998 to some $44.3 billion, according to Natural Resources Canada. Significant declines in world prices for major minerals and metals led to the decrease, which is the first for the Canadian minerals industry since 1991.

Based on the value of output, the top non-fuel commodities in 1998 were:

• gold, at $2.3 billion;
• copper and potash, each at $1.7 billion;
• iron ore at $1.6 billion;
• zinc at $1.5 billion; and
• nickel at $1.4 billion.

A bright spot for the industry was the performance of non-metals and structural materials, both of which experienced gains in 1998, reflecting strong economic conditions in North American markets. The total of the value of production in the non-metals group, which includes such commodities as asbestos, potash, salt, peat and sulphur, continued to climb, rising to its current level of $3.3 billion, an increase of 8.3%.

Although decreases occurred for asbestos and sulphur, other commodities, such as peat and potash, increased significantly. Also, diamond data appear for the first time in this total production value. The structural metals group increased by $63.4 million to just over $2.9 billion.

The value of metal production fell by more than 10.7% to $10.3 billion as major commodities, such as nickel and copper, reacted to global supply and demand conditions. Copper dropped by 17.4% in value despite a 6.3% increase in production. With the price of gold remaining soft during 1998, production fell by 3.1% and its associated value decreased by 8.1%, or $200 million.

Ontario continues to contribute the largest share of non-mineral fuel output (accounting for 30.2%), followed by Quebec (20.8%), Saskatchewan (13.3%), British Columbia (11.6%), Newfoundland (6.1%), Manitoba (5.5%) and New Brunswick (5%). The other provinces and territories accounted for the remainder (7.5%).

Alberta continued to generate the largest share of mineral fuel revenues, accounting for 78%, while British Columbia (9.3%) and Saskatchewan (8.8%) came in second and third, respectively. The value of Canadian production of mineral fuels fell 16% to $27.8 billion.