B.C. is working to make clear its commitment to the mining industry as an annual gathering of the industry’s biggest provincial players gets underway in Vancouver this week.
First, on Sunday (Jan. 25), the province signed an agreement to work with other provinces and territories on a new critical minerals strategy.
Then on Monday, Premier David Eby announced in a speech to the annual Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) round-up in Vancouver that the province plans to guarantee fixed exploration permitting timelines.
Beginning April 1, the province is set to guarantee permit timelines of 40 to 140 days, depending on the project complexity. The government will provide $3 million to ensure the timelines can be met.
“This means more staff, more capacity, more certainty for you moving through the process, so you can get out on the land and do the work that you do,” he told the crowd at the roundup.
AME, meanwhile, is launching a campaign called Minerals for Tomorrow to encourage even more early-stage exploration. Goals include improving permitting clarity, protecting land access, gaining recognition for mining as a strategic national priority, strengthening partnerships with First Nations and encouraging awareness of the impact minerals have on modern life.
“Without exploration, there are no future mines,” AME President Todd Stone said in a news release. “And without future mines, Canada becomes more dependent, more expensive, and more vulnerable.”
B.C.’s agreement to create a new critical minerals strategy comes in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with several other western provinces and territories.
The MOU was signed by B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and agrees to expedite development, strengthen supply chains, and diversify trading partners.
The memorandum establishes a framework for cooperation on a Western Canadian critical minerals strategy to promote the region as a critical minerals hub and find ways to maximize extraction.
Black Press Media has requested a copy of the MOU, but had not received it as of publication deadline.