Manitoba mining ranking drops, new projects on way

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This article was published 13/03/2021 (1730 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba has dropped further down the rankings of the Fraser Institute’s annual ranking of mining companies.

After reaching lofty heights of No. 2 in 2016 in the investment attractiveness index out of 104 international jurisdictions — the Fraser Institute ranks Canadian provinces, and Australian and U.S. states individually — this year Manitoba is a humbling 37th.

It has been falling steadily for the past few years, ranking 34th last year after first reaching the top 10 in 2014.

While the whole industry has been suffering from depressed commodity prices, the fact is that Manitoba was only ranked higher than Nova Scotia, Nunavut and Northwest Territories among Canadian jurisdictions this year.

Over the past few years the industry in Manitoba has been beset with negative news, with the closure of Vale smelter and the Birchtree mine in Thompson, the closure of the gold mine in Bissett and downsizing of HudBay’s operations in Flin Flon.

While a top ranking is something for industry promoters to crow about, some in the industry caution about putting too much emphasis on the rankings because the survey uses a very small sample size.

“I don’t think this should besmirch Mantioba’s reputation,” said Danniel Oosterman, vice-president of exploration and Canadian operations for Silver Elephant Mining Corp. which just acquired the Minago nickel property from Victory Nickel.

“I have worked in Manitoba in the past and it has always been an excellent jurisdiction to work in,” he said.

But the province’s minerals branch has undergone a re-organization and some downsizing, at least partly in response to the industry’s own downsizing.

“My understanding in my short experience (since acquiring the Minago property) is that everyone I have dealt with in the government side have been really helpful but everyone I have spoken to says they are a little over-worked and bogged down,” Oosterman said.

Mineral prices have been on the decline for a few years now and are just starting to tick back up again. Some, including Oosterman, believe that when that happens jurisdictions like Manitoba will start to deploy more resources towards the development of new discoveries.

In the meantime, there are still a handful of promising exploration sites in the province that are being worked with the hopes of becoming producing mines at some point.

One of them is a site near Red Sucker Lake called Monument Bay, owned by Yamana Gold Inc.

Stuart Weinberg, an official with Yamana said, “Our efforts are at the exploration stage only for now… but so far we have found no issue that would suggest any challenges working in the province… and we believe low power costs in the province could be very supportive for mining.”

A spokesman for the Manitoba Department of Agriculture and Resource Development said that while both Vale and HudBay have been “challenged to find substantive new deposits” both continue to invest in the province.

“We also have very promising exploration investments coming into Manitoba for gold, copper, lithium and other critical minerals and metals,” he said.

The province established a new $20-million Manitoba Mineral Development Fund, administered by the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce, that has supported more than a dozen new projects so far.

“We expect to see the results of that investment in the 2021 survey results,’ he said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca