Page 54 By Kevin V incent Ontario s prospectors have a re newed bounce in their step and they are going to great lengths to make certain the new Ontario govern ment pays attention Overall when it comes to 2019 and beyond the Ontario Prospector Association s Executive Director Garry Clark told Mining Life and Exploration News that he is cautiously optimistic about exploration s future The Ontario Prospectors Association OP A based in Thunder Bay represents seven associations across the prov ince Clark has a seat at the table with the government s new Mining W orking Group chaired by Energy Northern Development and Mines Minister Greg Rickford In an open letter to Rickford shortly after his appointment to the commit tee in March of this year Clark was blunt in pointing out that govern ment bureaucrats and ministerial staf need to become acutely aware of the stunning timelines that some mining operations have endured to O ntario P rospectors A ssociation be green lit for production W e acknowledge that this new gov ernment is trying to get their legs under them right now Clark said The Mining W orking Group is a nice balance of producing mine rep resentation and exploration ists but the real challenge are the minister s staf Some of them just dont under stand he added It is critical that your staf compre hends the mining sequen ce and the timelines associated with min eral discovery to production wrote Clark The components to discover an economic deposit are compli cated and getting to production can take years Examples of the lengthy timeline are numerous and include New Gold s Rainy River Deposit discovery to production 34 years Musselwhite 40 years Harte Gold 50 years The OP A didnt walk into its f rst working group meeting unprepared In the letter to Rickford they laid out a detailed f vepoint plan of attack that its members believe will restore Ontario to becoming the number one jurisdictio n in which to conduct exploration and mining 1 The plans and permits system re quires an overhaul to allow a more expedited process The potential is to streamline the system to allow a certain level of exploration that is known to occur that does not require plans or permits Flexibility in plan ning early exploration through to initial drilling cannot be emphasized enough It is very dif cult to permit in advance exactly where the f rst prediscovery drill holes on a pro gram will be These levels could be on a notif cation basis to First Na tion Communities The requirement is that an understanding by the Communities of the basic Mining Sequence Early exploratio n have minimal footprints on the landscape 2 A determination of the First Na tion Communities T raditiona l Lands needs to be illustrated allowing explorers to know who they would need to consult with after claim ac quisition This is a mapping exer cise that would require interaction of various First Nation Communities Presently certain First Nation Com munities are trying to restrict claim acquisition on parts of their asserted traditional territory this needs to be addressed 3 As projects progress toward pro duction companies need to have stability as to which First Nation Communities they need to develop relationships with The need for knowledge of ef ected Communities should have a cut of point Having to consult with two Communities at the early stages and ending up with twelve at production isnt feasible 4 Support of the Prospectors and Junior Companies is required to place Ontario on the same level as other Provinces Comparab le f ow through rates would assist as well as a rebate system for exploration Explorers in other Provinces enjoy a refund on exploration The recent Junior Explora tion Assistance Pro gram funded by NOHFC was a very successful with 61 projects funded by the 41 million with companies stating they intend to spend an ad ditional 42 million Ontario Prospector Association Executive Director Garry Clark suggestions 5 grabbing government bureaucrats by the ears