Quebec Government Encourages $80 Billion Plan Nord at PDAC

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Quebec Government Encourages $80 Billion Plan Nord at PDAC

posted on Mar 06, 2012 04:46PM

Quebec Government Encourages $80 Billion Plan Nord Project at PDAC

March 06 2012, 3:45 p.m.
By Alex Letourneau,
Mining reporter, Kitco News
http://www.kitco.com/

Toronto-(Kitco News)--The government of Quebec's $80 billion Plan Nord project was on full display at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada's annual convention, which occurs from Sunday to Wednesday in Toronto.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Serge Simard, Minister for Natural Resources and Wildlife, were on hand Monday. Charest spent roughly 20 minutes walking through the Plan Nord booth, speaking about the project and taking questions from interested attendees.

The Plan Nord project, announced May 9, has mining firms and the Quebec government investing $80 billion over 25 years to mine gold, diamonds, copper, molybdenum, rare-earths, nickel, lithium and uranium above the 49th parallel in northern Quebec.

The project covers 1.2 million square kilometres and accounts for 72% of Quebec's geographic area, or an area twice the size of France.

Charest also spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto at the Fairmont Hotel where he touched on the Plan Nord, among other topics.

He mentioned that the project was generating a lot of interest abroad.

"I've been to Europe, Japan and China and there's a lot of interest for a lot of reasons," Charest said. "There's strong demand on natural resources from emerging economies (and) urbanisation is putting a strong demand on resources and technologies. For that reason it's been very well received."

Premier Jean Charest answers a question about Plan Nord.

The Quebec government's booth at 2012 PDAC convention.

"It's a long term vision, we have a wealth of resources and we want to develop them with a sense of order and balance. That's why it's a 25 year vision," he added.

The Quebec government had a large booth centered in the trade show area of the convention center where delegates were able to learn about the project from several multimedia displays as well as having several representatives on hand to answer questions.

There was also a two hour session Monday where Minister Simard was among several speakers talking about various aspects of the project.

Simard felt that the Plan Nord project was well received.

"We are very satisfied with the reception and interest we received from participants at the PDAC conference," said Simard. "Our objective was to present our project to the global mining industry, which is essentially what the Plan Nord represents, and the enormous potential for investment."

"There is actually a strong interest in developing mining in Quebec," said Simard.

The Plan Nord project has already begun to generate significant investments in the 10 months it was announced.

"Since we announced the project on May 9, we have close to $6 billion worth of investments that have been announced," Charest said. "It's spectacular and it's going to be a very important lever of economic and social development for the north."