BY STAN SUDOL
The Ontario Prospectors Association is holding the Ontario Exploration and Geoscience Symposium 2006 in Sudbury this week (Dec. 12 and 13) at the Radisson Hotel.
Over the past year the mergers and acquisitions of the major mining companies in this city and around the world have captivated the general public.
However, most people don't realize how important the junior
sector, geoscience communities and prospectors are for a
healthy mining industry.
Increasingly, the junior mining sector is accounting for more greenfield exploration. In many cases, senior company's exploration expenditures are focused on further delineating existing deposits. In 2004, the juniors overtook the seniors in exploration expenditures with 53 percent of the total of $1.1 billion spent that year.
In 2005, the juniors increased to 59 percent of the $1.2 billion spent on exploration in Canada. Sixty per cent of the world's exploration and mining companies are based in Canada and they have become a dominant force in exploration at home and abroad.
A healthy and well funded geo-science industry is also vital for the continued development of mineral resources in this country. The products and services of the Ontario Geological Survey, located at the Laurentian University campus, are critical for the province's mining sector to maintain it's premier position in Canada.
Many feel that the provincial government cutbacks from the Conservative Harris years have yet to be restored by the current McGuinty government.
Ontario will not be able to continue to enjoy the revenues and wealth created from the province's $7 billion plus mining sector without increased funding for essential geoscience initiatives.
In this age of digitized, high-tech mine finding, the role of the individual prospector is still very important. Don McKinnon, John Larche - the discoverers of the Hemlo gold deposits in northwestern Ontario, Charles Fipke, who discovered Canada's first diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, and Albert Chislett and Chris Verbiski - the Voisey's Bay nickel mine should all be house-hold names.
Their discoveries have created enormous wealth and prosperity. Mr. Fipke's initial discovery started a claimstaking rush up north that has lead to the discovery of many more diamond mines. Canada is now the third largest producer of diamonds in the world and all of these mines offer significant employment and business opportunities to local Aboriginal communities. The same can be said of Inco's Voisey Bay nickel mine in Labrador where about fifty per cent of the workforce is made up of Aboriginal people.
Again, many people in the industry are frustrated with the lack of support the Ontario government is giving to the province's prospectors. We cannot afford to ignore the grassroots level.
The Ontario Exploration and Geoscience Symposium 2006 will offer various presentations from promising junior miners and government geoscientists.
In addition, this will be the second year for the newly established Ontario Prospector Award. This award is given to individuals who have made significant contributions to the mineral exploration sector in Ontario.
Last year's award winner was Mickey Clement of Wawa who was one of the first prospectors to find diamonds in the Wawa area in the early nineties. This discovery initiated tens of millions of exploration dollars in that section of northeastern Ontario.
This symposium is an excellent opportunity to get up to date on many of the province's exploration hot spots.
Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and policy analyst who writes  extensively on mining issues.[email protected]
