Can the Northwest Territories’ Competitive Edge for mining be put into words?
As panellists in a government-sponsored “incubator session” during the Yellowknife Geoscience Forum, two young geologists gave it a try.
“Anomalous” in Canada’s mining industry, they said of the government’s Mining Incentive Program. (Ok, they used words like “amazing” and “fantastic” too.)
“It’s the single best thing I have ever done,” says Drake Hyden about his first MIP-supported exploration foray. The funding he received helped Drake reach a promising, but remote site to map, sample and stake a claim.
Government mining services and programs were compared to boutique shopping experiences where service is elevated by staff with a strong passion about their work.
Landon Powell, an Outreach Geologist with the Northwest Territories Geological Survey, has earned a reputation for going “above and beyond” to help prospectors and companies qualify for exploration funding.
“We’re still a small jurisdiction,” he notes. “That allows us to assist industry at a higher level.”
Caps and restrictions, for example, that prevent small or individual prospecting companies from qualifying for government funding in other jurisdictions are handled differently in the NWT.
Exceptional service standards in the NWT extend, of course, well beyond government funding programs.
They are equalled in the territory’s Mining Recorder’s Office, resource pathfinding services, regulatory processes and engagement practices.
“If I call someone in the NWT, they know who I am, my project, exactly what’s going on and have a genuine care and interest about our success,” says Vice President of Operations Stefan Sklepocwiz, who is developing the Olympus property for Golden Planet (https://goldenplanet.ca/).
He also praised the territory’s “amazing deposits” alongside the GNWT’s “100% institutional support” to mineral exploration.
“The mineral endowment of the North is so extreme, so valuable and relatively untouched,” Sklepocwiz says. “It’s an absolutely precious resource that is sitting there untapped.”
“The territory is the last jurisdiction where you can go out and stake and not have to make a deal for it,” Drake adds. “The potential is high. Some people are ignoring that, but that will change eventually. When it does, the change will come like a waterfall, not a trickle. If you aren’t ready, next thing you know, it will be too late.”
At least on this day, the NWT’s competitive edge was defined by its global resource potential and world-class government services.