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Mining Association of B.C. Looks to Rally Support for Industry Rebound

Published: May 24, 2018 |

The editorial board of The Vancouver Sun and The Province met with Bryan Cox, CEO of the Mining Association of B.C.

The editorial board of The Vancouver Sun and The Province met with Bryan Cox, CEO of the Mining Association of B.C.
[Click image to enlarge]

Mining in British Columbia is rebounding, with shuttered mines reopened, hundreds of jobs restored and the industry looking to rally support in “a pivotal time for mining,” according to a key industry lobbying group.

“Cautiously optimistic would be where I’d say the industry is at,” said Bryan Cox, CEO of the Mining Association of B.C. during an editorial board meeting with The Vancouver Sun and Province Wednesday.

With a brand new mine opening in 2017, along with the reopening of others, direct employment at mines increased to 10,200 from 9,329 the previous year and net income from B.C. mining operations soared to $3.5 billion from just $1.4 billion in 2016.

The results are largely fueled by a recovery in global prices for the key minerals that B.C. mines produce — particularly coal used in steel making and copper — following a prolonged downturn.

“We’ve just gone through a really tough (part) of the commodity cycle the past four or five years,” Cox said. “Now, we’re seeing (prices) bounce back up, but that’s not something we control.”

And with a new Green-party-supported NDP government starting to put its imprint on industry oversight, the mining association is lobbying to make sure its voice is heard in the reviews that Minister of Energy and Mines Michelle Mungall has set in motion.

Mungall has established a mining jobs task force aimed at maintaining employment in the sector, which Cox is a member of, as a first step.

The minister has also called for a review and revitalization of the environmental assessment process, where government faces pressure to tighten regulation of the industry.

“They have expressed real support for mining,” Cox said.

Environmental groups such as Mining Watch and the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Center, have argued for a public inquiry into B.C.’s regulatory system.

The Mining Association’s starting point, however, is that B.C. already has strong regulations and any improvements to the environmental assessment process need to be made in context with the pre-application process for projects and the permitting that follows.

B.C. needs to be competitive globally on the cost of doing business, Cox said, since it has no control over the price of the commodities it produces.

“We need to be mindful of the cost and tax structures in this jurisdiction compared to jurisdictions like Chile, for copper and Australia for steelmaking coal,” Cox said.

“The biggest thing the investment community needs to be able to see is that mines can be permitted and that mines can be built.

“We’ll see more (mineral) exploration if we are able to see mines getting permitted and built.”

Other points in the mining association’s sales pitch are that the industry increasingly relies on technology to improve and that the minerals B.C. produces are key to developing the low-carbon economy.

Cox said he recently spoke at an event tied to the B.C. Tech Summit to impress upon leaders in that sector the innovations it is harnessing, whether it is software services, clean technologies in mine operations or virtual reality.

The copper that B.C. produces is also in high demand for uses like the motors in electric cars or renewable energy, Cox said, and its steelmaking coal is useful for technologies such as the manufacture of wind turbines.

“We can only mine where the geology says we can and we’re blessed with great geology,” Cox said. “It’s not a fact of if we mine it’s how we mine, because we need these metals and minerals for the transition to a lower-carbon economy. So let’s figure out the way forward together, is our message.”

Source: Vancouver Sun


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