Joe Mazumdar, Economic Geology/Analyst with Exploration Insights, delivered a Keynote focussed on the future exploration trends in Canada for the fourth day of Mines and Money London.
Canada is a mining powerhouse, with global assets valued at C $254 billion. North America is where just over half the assets lie with 1/3 being in Canada. In 2017 Canada produced 60 products from mining valued at C $44 billion. The top 5 products are gold, coal, copper, iron ore and potash. Canada ranks in the top 20 of the Worlds Bank Ease of Doing Business Survey. As of 2017 it also was also the least corrupt of the major mining companies and most attractive mining jurisdiction.
The major mines located in Canada are metals (copper, PGMs, gold, cobalt etc.). Large mines are operated by large multinationals such as Glencore at their Kidd operations in Timmins and Vale at their Creighton mine in Sudbury. The top four mining provinces in Canada in 2017 are Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, which accounted for 75% of the total value that year.
In terms of future exploration, Canada is at the forefront. In 2017, 15% of the global exploration fund for non-ferrous commodities was directed to Canada with a focus for gold. 57% of this budget went too exploration in Quebec and Ontario for gold. 77% of all drilling in 2017 in Canada was for gold exploration with Zinc second at 5%.
Majority of the funding was spent by junior companies (which Canada has a high of 247 operating junior companies), which have seen a spending rise back up to 40%, a level not seen since 2012.
Global gold trends for exploration budgets have increased with Canada the major country on this high. Proportion of gold exploration in Canada is up 20% levels not seen since 2011 and very good indicator for the future.
