Ontario’s State of Mining Address

By Kevin Vincent

Ontario is mining the fuels of tomorrow, today. Ontario’s Mines Minister George Pirie isn’t shy about the short-term and long-term potential impact of northern Ontario’s mining industry on the Canadian and global economy.

In a State of Mining address at the Canadian Mining Expo in Timmins in June, Pirie delivered a passionate and personal essay about Ontario’s mining future. “It’s my responsibility for the ring of fire,” said Pirie. “But another mandate I have is to ensure that Ontario is the number one mining jurisdiction in Canada. It allows me to talk about a number of very important points, including energy.”

“I’m talking about a hundred year future that we’re looking at right here in Timmins as the hub of mining in Northern Ontario and in Canada. This is where it’s going to be.”

Pirie pointed to the discovery of oil in the United States in the 1800’s. “They found oil in Texas. And on the back of that, the US became the number one economy. There’s some other factors that made that happen. But it was basically because they had found the world’s, at that time, largest source of fuel. That’s what we found here in Northern Ontario. And this is why mining is important because we have to mine the fuel – it’s important.”

Pirie says mining was always important but now it’s critical because if we are going to solve the challenges of our society, we have to mine the minerals.

“The minerals have to come out of the ground. We’re mining the fuels of tomorrow today in Northern

Ontario. It’s very important for every person in this room and every part of the mining industry. It’s important to your children. It’s important to your grandchildren.”

The Mines Minister says New York investors are taking notice. “Somebody has found out that geez, we’ve got to get started on this. Mining is important. Mining is critical. And that’s what we’re sitting on right now. We’re sitting on the future.

Pirie described how the ministry is trying to create an attractive climate. “The ministry doesn’t build the mines, but it sets the table - so these mines get built. The other thing that’s incredibly important, it’s how we’re building these mines.”

Pirie turned his attention to sustainability. “The definition of sustainability is that we meet the needs of the current generation without sacrificing the future generation. When I travel around the country and I go to the Creighton mine, I’ll pick on that one, 9,600 feet deep, it’s a Vale mine, they’re running it with electric vehicles. The air is clean, it’s hot, but it’s clean.”

The Minister said there are a lot of companies developing and building EVs. “And as I said you couldn’t find EVs, the haulage vehicles, the scoops at the show because they’re in demand because the industry is changing. Newmont with the Borden Mine has got a good start on that technology. Agnico is committed to transforming into the EV technology. They’re committed. Canada-Nickel is committed to their haulage fleet will be hydrogen.”

“My father was born in 1920 in a house behind the mill and I saw the evolution of the mining sector and it was the evolution that started really with the people that worked it. There’s a sign on the tailings on the way between South Porcupine and Timmins that says Reclamation in Progress. That reclamation started way back in the 60s when that dam was decommissioned, and it was the operators that said we’re going to do this. You know why? Because their children played in those areas. They’re committed to it and that’s what good operators do. That’s what good service people do. They’re committed to mining correctly. It’s what makes me so proud about mining in Canada and make no mistake. Canadian miners are the best miners. Ontario miners are the best miners and because where I’m from I think the miners from Northern Ontario are the best. We’re very proud, we’re dedicated, and we’re committed to doing it

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The Minister also underlined the importance of the next generation of miners. “I met three or four school groups from Northern Ontario, and they all want to get involved in mining because they can see the future. And these are kids that want to get into the trades or they want to be engineers, and they want to be involved in mining because this is the place, this is where the future is, and you’ve got to be proud of that. These kids know that they’re standing there and they’re going to be responsible for changing the economy, not only in Ontario, Northern Ontario, but globally, as we get off fossil fuels.”

“The kids in that room will be leading the charge. And as soon as you say that, they stand up and say, boy, we are important. We’re doing the right things. We’re changing the economy. We’re changing society. And we’re changing it as miners. Never forget that,” he add- ed.

Pirie talked about three young people he met underground at Creighton. “There’s three youth I met at 9,600 level. One was from New Liskeard, one from Ramore and the other was a young indigenous lady from Moosonee and she was ecstatic to be working at 9600 feet at the Creighton mine because she wanted to be an electrical engineer to work on the equipment at that mine.”

Pirie says mining was always essential and now it’s critical. “The gold guys, the silver guys, all of the base-metal guys, they’re phenomenal, and it allows me to talk to them with impunity, with great pride about the quality of work that they do and the quality of people that they are.”

Northern Ontario is also a terrific place to find quality people according to Pirie. “Well, that includes finding guys like Danny Gagnon (President of Gowest Gold), Dave Russell is here at the back, finding guys like Dave Russell to run the Galleon op- eration, that run the Lake Shore Gold operations, the Newmont operations, the Agnico operations. How do you find them? Yes, they’re homegrown, but we’ve got phenomenal educational facilities as well, Northern College, Cambrian College, College Boreal, Laurentian, Lakehead, Confederation, all across the North, we are generating quality people.”

Pirie turned his attention to some of the lesser-known projects. “We’ve got rare earths in Northern Ontario, about 20 miles north, just west of Otter Rapids. Phenomenal deposits in the capital-facing structure, very poorly understood. That’s, you know, in board mine is just on the edge of the capital-facing structure. We’ve got a potash mine just in the Hearst area which is being developed by Fox Resources. That structure is phenomenal and it’s got an incredible potential because it’s underexplored and it’s underestimated. Our regional geologist is focusing on rare earths. But we’ve got another source of rare earths. We’re probably going to be producing rare earths out of the Sudbury area with Mirarco in combination with Vale and Glencore.”

Pirie paused and underscored the importance of Ontario developing rare earth mineral deposits.

“If China embargoed those earths we would not be able to build any electric motors because earths are required to build the magnets that are required to build electric motors that build electric vehicles. And if we don’t have the earths, you’re not building those motors and you’ve just ended the EV revolution. The rare earths are critical that we get them to secure the supply chain. And as you know the geopolitical situation is not lessening.”

The Mines Minister pointed to war in Ukraine. “The fact that the Rus-

Cont’d from pg. 20 sians just destroyed that dam - everybody here’s got to be stunned at that - but there’s a lesson there. These geopolitical critical minerals industry strategies are all associated about securing that supply chain. That’s about securing the metals that come from Northern Ontario and marrying them with the manufacturing might in Southern Ontario. It’s absolutely essential we secure this supply chain.” So what is Ontario doing to meet the demand and ensure Canada is a world leader in the production of electric vehicles?

“Bill 71, Côté Lake was the example that I used because it took 15 or 17 years to permit that mine, said Pirie. “That’s unacceptable. Bill 71 makes this ministry, my ministry, more efficient and more effective. There’s two very important points in that bill. Number one, every word in the old bill and the new bill is unchanged. In two respects, the duty to consult and protecting and maintaining Ontario’s environmental regulations. We’ve got the world’s best. And why? Because everybody in this room understands how important it is, how important the duty to consult is, as well as in maintaining environmental regulations.”

Pirie points to the IAMGOLD Côté Lake Mine. “They don’t even discharge water. $2 billion project -1600 people employed, they don’t even discharge water. With phenomenal indigenous relations, they prosper.”

Pirie turned his focus on the demand for clean energy.

“You can’t do mining without energy. And if you look at the energy profile, how much energy is going to be required, you know we need more energy. Monday morning I was at a conference in Toronto with Minister Todd Smith of Energy, and that was a conference with United Arab Emirates. And they were talking about critical minerals and energy. And as you know, Ontario is leading the world on these small modular reactors. There’s also small micro modular reactors that I think have a huge future in the indigenous communities in the north. With them, you could power green houses so that you’ve got your food security for those communities. There’s another source of energy that’s untapped in the north. Hudson’s Bay and James Bay has the best wind profile in North America. It’s all untapped right now.”

Pirie concluded his remarks with a promise that the Ford government is committed to making Ontario Canada’s #1 mining jurisdiction and one of the best in the world. “We’re already the number one jurisdiction for exploration. So we’re setting the table for the development with our Critical Minerals Strategy, with our Bill 71 and also the Red Tape Bill that allows us to do our businessat the pace of business. We’ve got more work to do on the Exploration Fund. As I said, when we developed this bill, we had round tables. We had all the leading industry and indigenous people that we got their input from. And we’re doing the same thing on the exploration side of the fence.”

“We want to be Canada’s number one jurisdiction for mining. And I think we’re on our way on that.”