Day: October 8, 2010

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business  provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. This article was published in the October, 2010 issue.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Uncertainty in regulations and land tenure worries miners

Ontario may promote itself as being among the best mining jurisdictions in the world, but some industry executives polled in a Fraser Institute survey are second-guessing that blanket statement. A special mid-year report penned by researchers Fred McMahon and Miguel Cervantes raises some red flag issues for investment.

Confidence in Ontario continues to sag due to respondents’ concerns over government policy, dealings with First Nations, and uncertainty over whether a big chunk of Ontario’s untapped mineral resource will be set aside for protection.

“Mining is a long-term endeavor,” said Fred McMahon, vice-president of the Vancouver-based international public policy think tank. “That kind of instability is very damaging.”

Some mining companies accused the McGuinty government of trying to
“kill Ontario” and hinted that antimining environmental activist groups
have considerable weight in shaping public policy.

As commodity prices improve, Mc-Mahon said governments, unions and non-government organizations are finding mining an easy target to tear up existing agreements, drive up costs, and introduce “predatory taxes” that cause instability in investment.

McMahon said these dramatic changes in recent months prompted the Fraser Institute to release its firstever mid-year report card in August.

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Frank P. Tagliamonte is a North Bay-based geologist and prospector.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

The McGuinty government has recently passed legislation, the Far North Act – Bill 191, that will be detrimental for all the citizens of Ontario, especially the North.

Briefly , this act has been initiated and promoted by an environmental lobby group and embraced by the McGuinty government without meaningful consultation with First Nations and the citizens of Ontario, particularly Northerners. It has been rejected by most mayors of Northern Ontario communities and when its impact is fully understood , will likely be opposed by cities and towns in the South as well.

This Act will prohibit all natural resource development, mining, timbering and hydro projects,  in a vast land mass comprising some 250,000 acres in Northern Ontario – not Southern Ontario.

Can Ontario realistically abandon potentially rich and vast resource areas that will provide employment, especially for First Nation communities, mineral riches and abundant tax revenues to a deeply indebted Province?

This land mass overlies the mineral-rich Canadian Shield with the potential to host world-class mining camps such as Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Sudbury and Red Lake.

Already a diamond mine is in production, producing world-quality diamonds within the soon to be “off-limits area.” Rich deposits of chromite, copper and nickel have recently been discovered in a small part of this vast area known as the Ring of Fire – one of the most important new mining camps in Canada. There is enormous potential for many more discoveries in the years ahead.

Can Ontario realistically abandon potentially rich and vast resource areas that will provide employment, especially for First Nation communities, mineral riches and abundant tax revenues to a deeply indebted Province? 

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