Without a doubt, this seems to be the season of First Nation/Mining conflicts. "If it bleeds, it leads" is the standard of newspaper reporting.

http://www.republicofmining.com/2012/04/12/wabauskang-mobilizes-against-red-lake-resource-boom-by-shawn-bell-wawatay-news-april-11-2012/

But we should remember that there are over 200 agreements between Aboriginal communities and major miners and exploration companies across the country and 90 of those agreements are in northern Ontario.

The good news seldom makes the national media. However, the Ontario mining and junior exploraton sector does need to focus on good relations with First Nations communities and ensure more benefits flow to these very marginalized people.

We must remember the original treaties that were signed in the mid to late 1800s - the last major one in the early 1900s - were between very powerful British/Canadian governments and a less educated and economically weaker group of First Nations. By any stretch of the imagination, the treaties were not fair and have never lived up to their promises.

The current impoverished conditions of First Nations communities in regions of extraordinary mineral wealth clearly indicate that this enormous prosperity was not fairly shared.

The goal is to ensure a more equitable sharing of that wealth without driving away the vital junior exploraton sector that is the basis of most mineral discoveries today.

I never said it would be easy. But I do believe that we will be able to resolve this.

If Canadians can invent the blackberry, the Avro Arrow super sonic jet plane in the 1950s and create one of the wealthiest countries in the world from the "land that God gave to Cain" then we can figure this out fairly.

Strategic Miner