Canadian Regional Manager, Amélie St-Onge, and Business Development Manager, Joel Jeangrand, attended the Xplor 2019 convention in Montréal, Québec from October 21 -22, 2019. The Québec Mineral Exploration Association hosts the Xplor convention yearly in order to help attendees multiply business relationships and investment opportunities, to help them get up to speed on the latest cutting-edge technologies, and to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on ways to further expand mineral exploration in the province. It gathered more than 1000 participants, including 72 speakers and 100 exhibitors.
‘’Attending this event continues to be an absolute must for anyone in the Québec mineral exploration industry. The training sessions are pertinent and insightful, the various events are well organized and well attended, and it continues to be the best moment to catch up with all of our Québec based clients and partners. From interesting market and finance reports, to panels on current regulatory burden to sessions on the rise of AI in the mining industry, there is certainly enough content for everyone to find something interesting’’.
Québec has consistently been one of the top 3 jurisdictions in Canada for exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures. One fifth of Canada’s mining output comes from Québec, and the resources there are the most diverse in Canada: 15 metals and 13 minerals are produced and upgraded there, including lithium, rare earths and apatite.
One of the main discussion point at this years’ XPLOR conference was the recent variations to the level of investment in mining projects in the province. A major industry shift has seen junior mining companies having to source funding from strategic investors rather than the public market, and needing to strengthen their creativity in order to attract investors. An opportunity that has been used by companies to distinguish themselves from others has been centered around the “passer au vert” movement, which translates to “promote sustainable mining.” This centers around the increase of value of good corporate behaviour with investors.
Despite the recent slowdown in mining investments, Québec still ranks 4th as the most attractive jurisdiction in the world for mining investment.
