Canada’s British Columbia and the Territories are the country’s mining districts where it takes the longest to obtain exploration permits, a new report released Tuesday shows.
According to a survey of mining executives by policy think-tank the Fraser Institute, while Canadian provinces and territories fared well compared to international competitors in terms of issuing permits in a timely manner, some provinces certainly have room for improvement.
A case in point is British Columbia, the study shows, where 60% of survey respondents said wait times have lengthened over the past decade, compared to just 38% in Quebec. In contrast, not a single respondent in Saskatchewan, the world’s new top mining investments destination according to a related study, said permit wait times were longer than 10 years ago.
Saskatchewan also ranked first in another category — approval within six months or less — with 91% of respondents saying yes, compared to 88% in Quebec, 80% in Ontario and only 73% in B.C.
On the level of transparency in the approvals process, jurisdictions in the US, Australia and Scandinavia performed better than Canada, the report shows.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.mining.com/explorers-frustrated-with-waiting-times-for-permits-in-british-columbia-the-territories/