A Canada-Italy Potential Trade Marriage Made in Heaven
TORONTO – The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention is the world’s premier annual event for mineral exploration and mining. For the sake of simplification, that is the “upstream” side of that resource – “extraction” – sector. According to generally accepted industry estimates, over 40% of the world’s mining companies are resident in Canada.
Hence, unsurprisingly, it is held annually in Toronto, where it attracts, and connects, close to 30,000 attendees, industry leaders, indigenous groups, investors and government representatives – worldwide. An Italian delegation also participated. The Corriere Canadese received an invitation to attend and did so on behalf of our readers.
Italy, which had ceased mining exploration and extraction on an economically significant basis in the 1980s, has re-kindled its interest [in the Canadian mining sector]. Through its Diplomatic corps, led by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Enterprise (through the Hon Valentino Valentini and Ambassador Alessandro Cattaneo) along with special envoys for Natural Resources and Made in Italy Economic Strategies, Italy effectively announced its active interest in the “downstream” business-side of the Mining Sector.
It is understandable: Italy is a manufacturing-based society; the second in size and importance in Europe. The fact that a country – 9th in Global GDP – noted for its research, innovation and practical manufacturing output would openly display “unsolicited” interest augurs well for Canada in its own pursuit of investment, partnership and market diversification. For Canada, it could not happen at a better time.
The Corriere Canadese newsroom, like others, has been inundated in recent days with Provincial, communications-driven press releases and announcements touting “initiatives” or co-operation on issues relative to precious metals and the Ring of Fire, an area in Northern Ontario similar in size to Basilicata or Friuli in Italy.
Some of the dollar values and job creation numbers attributed to the development of those precious metals reach stratospheric levels. Without exaggeration, these figures carry with them truly transformative, nation-building, economic, socio-cultural and wealth-creation potential… “if only”.
Alas, those precious metals were an “urgent issue” even when I entered Government at the turn of 21st century. By the 2008 election, and the subsequent one in 2011, my friends and colleagues from Northern Ontario, urged on and led by the Hon Joe Comuzzi, had turned the Ring of Fire into a rallying cry for economic growth in the North and beyond.
The “If only” gradually laid bare an unprepared “policy myopia in need of correction”. Rather than “grope in the dark”, Mining Watch Canada commissioned Joan Kuyek, D.S.W., to research, and publish an Economic analysis of the Ring of Fire chromite mining play. It went to print on January 25, 2011.
Fifteen years later, I dusted off my copy in preparation for the panel discussion on the matter organized by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce the Automobile Parts Manufacturing Association and … the Italian Diplomatic Corps in Canada!
Of course, there was also a significant participation by Federal and Provincial authorities and an impressive list of accomplished private sector representatives. All of them, during their allotted time or during the Panel discussion, revealed a grasp of the issues Joan Kuyek enumerated in 2011.
In brief, they explored the sine qua non to success where others had missed the mark. The following is not an exhaustive list of what a serious partner must address: uses and environmental concerns, supply, markets, power concerns, production facilities, rail lines, water management, tax policies, “property rights” and so forth.
Much has changed since 2011. Potential values have increased exponentially, but the conditions continue to call out for leadership, as Hugues Jacquemin, the Mining Sector representative said – in excitement rather than disappointment – the time is now for coordinated action. The Auto Sector and Italy answered the call.
Here below is a photogallery from the event (photo: Corriere Canadese / Embassy of Italy in Canada)
