Industry looking to extend the exploration momentum

Theme of this year’s convention, which attracted about 4,100 delegates to Toronto’s Royal York Hotel, was “Canadian mineral discoveries — maintaining the momentum,” a direct reference to the booming exploration side of the industry the past few years.

Pushed on by flow-through financing, expenditures on mining exploration in 1988 totalled an estimated $1.1 billion. In 1987 (the peak year in terms of exploration expenditures), an estimated $1.3-1.4 billion was spent on exploration.

During the 6-year period 1983-88, the PDAC estimates total exploration expenditures reached $4.8 billion, about $3 billion of which was attributable to flow-through financing.

The result of all the activity, as outlined by newly elected PDAC President Robert Ginn at the keynote session, was the creation of 10 new mines in 1986, 26 new mines in 1987 and 28 new mines in 1988. New discoveries

Between 1983 and 1988, more than 200 new discoveries were recorded, Ginn said. As of December, 1988, 115 projects were considered to be in an advanced stage of exploration, 58 projects were in the developmental stage and more than 60 projects were producing mines. Another 18 of the projects are expected to become producing mines this year, Ginn said.

“Assuming a 15-year average mine life, we estimate this will create an additional 200,000 person- years of employment and inject over $20 billion into the Canadian economy,” Ginn said.

While gold has received more than a fair share of exploration attention, base metal prices underwent a resurgence in 1988, providing a further boost for the industry. In particular, more than a few news stories dealt with the country’s diminishing base metal reserves and the need to focus on base metal exploration.

With a new decade approaching, the PDAC has identified five main issues it considers to be most significant in terms of the industry’s future: financing, environmental preservation, mineral development agreements, multiple land-use, and public acceptance and support.

Among the other speakers at the keynote session was A. J. MacDonald, president of NIM Management, one of the major players in the raising of flow-through funds. Changes this year by the federal government to the flow-through financing scheme are expected to have a negative impact on the amount of dollars raised by the various funds.

Also speaking that morning, in separate presentations dealing with mineral exploration, were J. M. Gordon, vice-president Noranda Minerals, and M. L. Bilodeau of McGill University.

The two luncheon speakers featured at this year’s convention were D. W. Strangway, a prominent geophysicist who is president of the University of British Columbia, and W. A. Gatenby, president of Cameco, the giant uranium producer which operates out of Saskatchewan.

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