Metals 'Keep plugging,' natural resources minister tells industry conference

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DERWIN GOWAN
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

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New Brunswick's mining industry will survive economic upheavals, speakers said in Fredericton Monday.

More than 350 people are attending the Exploration, Mining and Petroleum New Brunswick 2008 conference. The annual event, underway since Saturday and hosted by the Department of Natural Resources, with industry sponsors, concludes Wednesday.

The industry might invest $46 million looking for minerals in New Brunswick this year, up from $33.7 million last year, Minister of Natural Resources Donald Arseneault said in his speech Monday.

New Brunswick mineral production reached nearly $1.6 billion in 2007. Taxes collected under the Metallic Minerals Tax Act totalled more than $130 million for 2007, up from $10 million in 2006, the minister said.

This year the companies exploring for minerals, oil and gas in New Brunswick number more than 30, with more than 37,000 claims in good standing.

Mining will thrive in New Brunswick despite low prices for lead and zinc, limits on exploring for uranium and the adjustment to an electronic system to stake and map claims, the minister said in an interview following his speech.

"We've got to keep plugging away," Arseneault, MLA for Dalhousie-Restigouche East, said in the interview.

On Sunday the government announced an interim system allowing prospectors to resume staking and mapping while the province implements the new electronic system over the coming year.

Many people complained earlier this year when the government suspended claims staking the old-fashioned way, requiring the prospector to actually go onto the land, without putting an interim system in place.

"In the end it will be better for everybody," Arseneault said.

The restrictions on uranium exploration remain in place. The government reacted to public demands without banning uranium exploration altogether like Nova Scotia did, Arseneault said. That possibly explains why mining exploration could reach $46 million in New Brunswick this year compared to $10 million in Nova Scotia, he said.

Kabir Ahmed, chief executive officer of Adex Mining Inc. (TSXV: ADE) of Toronto, spoke on progress towards resuming operations at the old tungsten-molybdenum mine, and opening a new tin and indium mine, at Mount Pleasant, Charlotte County.

The company believes it has tungsten and molybdenum already proven at Mount Pleasant worth $1.16 billion, not counting tin and indium, Ahmed said. An underground mine to remove this resource could employ 200 to 250 people over 13 years with an annual payroll of $15 million to $20 million per year.

The steel industry uses tungsten and molybdenum. Tin is used for making cans. Indium is used as a thin film coat in flat screen televisions and photovoltaic cells.

The prices of these metals have held up through the mayhem that forced Blue Note Mining Inc. (TSX:BN) of Montreal to shut down the Caribou and Restigouche zinc-lead mines in northern New Brunswick.

India and China need metals to build their infrastructure, Ahmed said.

Steve Davies, chief operating officer of Kria Resources of Toronto, spoke on the company's plans for the Stratmat and Halfmile Lake properties it acquired from Xsrtrata Zinc Canada in July.