Canada

While many of us in the continental U.S. are enjoying record-breaking temperatures this March, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton probably needed her down coat as she embarked on her new mission: laying the groundwork for a common EU policy on the Arctic. Traveling near the North Pole earlier this month, Ashton made a case for the EU to receive permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, current members of which are Canada, Russia, Denmark (through Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the U.S.

The EU’s increased interest in the region is hardly surprising considering the fact that the region is known to hold vast mineral resources, among them an estimated 13 percent of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves, and 30 percent of undiscovered gas reserves.

As the global race for resources has heated up, so has the geopolitical tussle over the Arctic’s mineral riches:

- In 2004, Denmark extended a bid on its geological claim linking the North Pole and Greenland via the Lomonosov Ridge.

- The summer of 2007 saw a number of movements, including a Russian minisub expedition planting a Russian flag beneath the North Pole, and Canada announcing plans to build two new Arctic military bases and a deep-sea port in the region.

- While Russia and Norway signed a deal over who owns what in the Barents Sea, a piece in the Guardian from July 2011 outlined ongoing territorial tussles between the U.S, Canada, Russia, Denmark and Norway.

- The Toronto Star warned in December 2011 that Russia may be ready to embrace “a new Cold War” over the Arctic, which it sees as its strategic future.

- In January of 2012, the Arctic race for mineral riches got a new dimension when China threw its hat into the ring, with Denmark having decided to serve as “the key gateway for Beijing’s commercial and strategic entrée into the Arctic.”

Today, Alaska’s state motto “North to the Future” sounds more timely than ever. Fortunate to have a claim to the Arctic’s riches via “Seward’s Folly”, the U.S. would be well-advised to harness Alaska’s significant resource potential, as envisioned by Gov. Sean Parnell – boosting job creation and reducing our needless over-reliance on foreign mineral resources in the process.

Contrasting sharply with the current U.S. domestic mineral policy environment, Canada’s federal budget to be released by the Harper Administration next week will reflect its stated commitment to removing barriers to investment and resource development.

Specific legislative language has yet to be introduced; however, according to the Canada Free Press, the budget outline will emphasize the need for a streamlined environmental assessment process, and reduced federal oversight over the regulatory process where provinces are equipped to step in with similar standards.

The proposed reforms stand to significantly bolster Canada’s economy with the potential to attract an estimated $500 billion in new energy and mining investment over the next decade.

Meanwhile, south of the border, the only mining-related “reforms” addressed by the Obama budget amount to a tax increase, likely to deter mining investment. U.S. American resources continue to be “hamstrung by red tape,” as American Resources principal Daniel McGroarty points out in his column for Forbes Magazine, and the U.S. continues to have the dubious honor of being tied for having the lengthiest permitting process among the 25 leading mining nations in the world.

What’s worse, recent policy decisions in Washington, DC create the impression that policy makers – with few notable exceptions – are oblivious to the fact that our strategic and economic future hinges on creating a framework conducive to maximizing our resource potential. Canada has read the writing on the wall – it’s about time we do the same.

It looks like we at American Resources are not the only ones noticing the increased appeal of silver – our “Metal of the Month” for March. The Gold Report interviewed several executives from the sector in a virtual roundtable for its latest issue. Here are the key points: The fundamentals behind silver are strong.   [...]

Canada is the leading country for mineral exploration for the 10th year in
 a row, according to the latest rankings from 
Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) Corporate 
Exploration Strategies. The country
 represents 18 percent of worldwide investments into non-fuel mineral
 exploration. Here are some interesting figures on Canada from the MEG Corporate 
Exploration Strategies study, which Commodities Now says 
includes [...]

Mining Weekly zeroes in on strategic metals issues under discussion at the annual Mining Indaba conference in South Africa (indaba, in zulu, is the word for a meeting on matters of substance).   Lara Smith of Core Consultants identifies cobalt, tantalum and the rare earths as high-risk metals, given a combination of uncertain supply and rising [...]

With China’s restrictive rare earths export policies having triggered a rush for other nations to get their hands on the sought-after set of critical minerals, Canada has hopes of filling the REE void left by China, according to the Gemcom Software Mining blog. A nation already rich in a broad variety of mineral resources, Canada is [...]

Working to implement a “strategy to reverse years of neglect and decline in its Far North,” Russia appears ready to re-embrace a Cold War, according to a detailed story in the Toronto Star.  Home to vast mineral resources including oil, zinc, and gold, for example, the Arctic is viewed by Russia as its strategic future, [...]

As China continues to hold the world hostage to its restrictive rare earths export policies, Canada is moving forward on a promising REE project discussed on RareMetalBlog.com. The discovery of near-surface mineralization and significant quantities of recoverable rare earth elements (REEs) in 2009 at Quest Rare Minerals’ Strange Lake property on the Quebec-Labrador border has [...]

Avalon Rare Metals Inc., a mineral exploration and development company primarily focused on rare earth deposits in Canada, is broadening its scope following a request from an “unnamed international industrial minerals company.” According to a press release issued by the company on October 20th, Avalon may partner with the international company to develop minerals on [...]

We’re thrilled to announce that Fred McMahon and Jean-Francois Minardi from the Canada-based Fraser Institute have joined the ARPN expert panel. McMahon is Vice-President of Research, International, at the Fraser Institute, and, among other things, co-author of the Fraser Institute’s annual Survey of Mining Companies.  Minardi is Associate Director of the institute’s Global Natural Resource [...]