Canada’s Hidden Resource Power Map Explained
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 8 minutes
Words per Minute
160.05406
Summary
For the last year, we ve been hearing how essential it is that we take advantage of our natural resources, our critical minerals. Well, today, Stan Sutil takes us through and tell us where in Canada these resources actually are, and are we really tapping into them? Are we doing the best we can to move forward these advanced projects? Today we ll let you know.
Transcript
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Today on True Patriot Love, Under the Pillar Resources, we're going to meet with Stan Sutil,
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expert on natural resources and mining. For the last year, we've been hearing how essential it is
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that we take advantage of our natural resources, our critical minerals. Well, today Stan's going
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to take us through and tell us where in Canada these resources actually are, and are we really
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tapping into them? Are we doing the best we can to move forward these advanced projects?
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Today on True Patriot Love, Under the Pillar Resources, we are lucky enough to have Stan Sutil.
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So Stan, you know, a lot of conversations recently about resources, you know, we heard about the
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tariffs, you know, from the U.S., and then all of a sudden resources became kind of number
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one on the hit list. The Prime Minister traveling all over the world, trying to find investors
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in Canada. The Ring of Fire, which we're going to talk about today, became huge issues, and
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we heard all about it. So resources all of a sudden, and they've always been very prominent
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in the Canadian economy, have become paramount. And so, you know, I wanted today to talk to
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you a little bit about across Canada, starting in B.C., what exactly are we mining, and, you
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know, what is it used for? So, you know, can we start in B.C.? Because, you know, I was surprised
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when I looked at the numbers that, for example, gold, right? A lot of gold is mined in B.C.
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Yeah. And, of course, we all know where gold goes for. We don't refine gold. We just mine
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No, we do refine. I mean, it gets milled, and then we do have the odd refinery with gold.
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Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So then it gets, so, and gold, quite frankly, is our top mining mineral?
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It varies, just, well, just because it depends on how you value, define it by value now, with
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close to $4,000 a U.S., and that's almost $5,000 Canadian. It's probably, monetarily-wise,
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is probably one of the top, if not the top, the second top export item with minerals.
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Yeah, yeah, no, and I was shocked. So, if I look at B.C., I look at, of course, gold,
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All right. I'm going to say this wrong. You're going to have to correct me.
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So, copper, we all know, wiring, electronics, plumbing.
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It's the most critical of the critical minerals, if anything, because the whole age of electricity
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depends on power, and we transmit power by copper. There's more copper in electric vehicles
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than there is in standard gas vehicles. Everything we do is connected with electricity, and demands
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for copper are expected to increase by leaps and bounds.
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Right. Okay. Gotcha. We talked about gold coal, steel making.
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Absolutely. Most of the coal coming out of British Columbia, and I believe Alberta, is metallurgical
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coal. Absolutely essential. Steel is our basic building block.
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And you get that by digging iron ore to the ground, mixing iron ore with metallurgical
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coal, and a few other substances in a blast furnace, and you get steel, which is your basic,
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all the towers that you see in downtown Toronto, condos or businesses, we're not building them
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Or any infrastructure, bridges, it's your basic building block. So you need to have,
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any modern industrial society has to have access to steel, and preferably if you're a G7 country
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Yeah. Which we, you know, today, I think, or last night we heard today is going to be the
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announcement on how we help our steel industry through this tariff structure, tariff crisis.
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And it's a complicated issue because there's a lot, unfortunately, I believe that the Canadian
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government allows a lot of foreign steel to come in here outside of American. And so that
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disrupts the market. And then the Americans look at our steel industry and they feel it's
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somewhat subsidized. And so if you just basically shut out the foreign steel coming from non-USA
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sources, you'd probably solve a lot of the issues, but then you're going to get China
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And so there's a lot of politics coming into it. But if you really want, as the old saying,
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regardless of Trump and the tariffs, all right, he will be there for four years. We've basically
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survived a year. As the tariffs are kicking in, prices in the US are going up and consumers
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in the US are getting angry. And they're realizing that Canada isn't the problem. I believe tariffs
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is more of the problem. And so there may be a little bit of softening and there may be a
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little moving into an equilibrium, especially after the midterms of next year. So we'll see
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how that goes. But basically we're attached to the Americans. I'm going off topic a little bit.
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I know Carney is trying to get open new markets, but when 75% of our economy is tied to exporting in
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the US, there's re and then the number two is like a way down on the list. Yeah. You know,
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from 75 to maybe 10%. Yeah. That's a tall order. Like he's, I don't even think God could change the,
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the, the economic reality that we are joined with the Americans at the hip and, you know,
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we have to deal with it and, and, and muddle our way through.
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Yeah. We did a great show on steel and the production of steel a couple months back. And
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it was very interesting, you know, the Chinese steel coming in and the quality and how the
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quality is much lower than the steel we make here for the minerals and the resources. And I was blown
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away because I didn't know any of this. Right. Absolutely. And you know what? It's always cheaper
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from China, whatever we do, it's always going to be cheaper in China. And, and, and, and I have to
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sort of sort of point out to people, well, you know what, if you really want the cheapest of
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everything, well, then get rid of the border. I mean, Canada in itself is there's a border,
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there's, there, there's rules, regulations. Uh, it's more expensive, uh, because we choose to be
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independent. So we make rules and regulations. And so you can't always go into the cheapest place
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because if you do, then there will be no jobs for Canadians. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. Silver. Um,
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some, uh, similar to gold to a degree, but there's a lot of, um, uh, high tech, uh, usage, especially in,
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um, um, uh, solar panels and, and, and, and elite, uh, technical applications. Okay. And Molly,
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uh, a steel additive. Steel additive. You mentioned that earlier. And, and the, what you find is with the
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open pit copper mines in BC, I almost want to call BC a kingdom of copper because there's so much
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copper. Right. Um, and the copper is a good quality copper cause there's not, um, um, bad elements like
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arsenic, which complicates smelter refining. It's a very clean concentrate. I've been told over and over
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again. Uh, and so in the Southern part of BC, you tend to have copper Molly, uh, as you go further, uh,
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sometimes you'll have some gold and silver, uh, but, uh, more copper and Molly, uh, as you go into the
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golden triangle and into the two dog gone. It's exactly how it sounds to dog gone, uh, new, uh, it's not a new,
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but an older, uh, mining region in Northern BC, um, you have a lot of copper mixed with gold,
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silver. Yes. So it, you, you're, you're really getting doing double duty and, uh, you're, you're
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making a good chunk of money because the, the grades of copper are lower. It can be fairly low,
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but because of the gold and silver, uh, it's economical to mine them to mine it. Yeah. It makes
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sense. Actually, I was listening this morning. It was a Tucker Carlson show with Chris Olson.
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And he was talking about gold and silver and how silver, you know, and I always wondered why
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silver was so, uh, the value was so much lower and it was interesting. So, you know, if you get the
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chance to check out the show, it was like, Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, Alberta potash.
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Um, not so much. Well, there, there may be some, uh, but if you're really looking at the next, uh,
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you you'll see some metallurgical coal in Alberta, but the next big mining province is really Saskatchewan.
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Right. Which is basically, um, potash in the middle. Yeah. We are one of the
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world's major potash producers. Uh, BHB has spent billions, um, investing in a, a new potash mine.
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Uh, but there's, uh, a legacy of older potash mines that have been contributing to the Saskatchewan economy.
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Okay. Uh, and literally if you take potash away, you'd probably see without that, which has turned
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into fertilizer. Yeah. Without that, you probably see a quarter die off in global population because
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we're so, it's such an essential part of ensuring that crop yields stay high. So, and some fertilizer,
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it's mixed with, um, natural gas or oil derivatives. Yeah. So again, when people say, well, stop oil,
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stop producing oil. Well, no, we can't because oil isn't just used for gasoline and heating. Yeah.
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It's used in fertilizer. It's used in pharmaceutical. Uh, it's used in such a wide variety of, um,
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uh, consumer products that we were all, we will always need to produce oil for some plastics.
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We will always need to produce oil on some level because of the materials that we get out of the
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oil and, and natural gas, uh, production. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I'm, I'm an accountant
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by trade. Okay. And years ago I had a client was Monsanto Canada. Okay. Yeah. So I didn't know any
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of this to tell you the truth until I started doing some work with them. It was one of my clients years
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ago and, uh, yeah, it was really a great education for me to learn how, you know, potash and how it
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all worked, which, uh, and oil and gas and yeah, most Canadians don't know that. Right. And they don't
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know how actually pivotal or, uh, essential we are for production in the world. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
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Unfortunately, our media is concentrated in the, uh, Montreal, Montreal, Toronto, Montreal, access,
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hacks, uh, the corridor. Yeah. And here we, we even going 400 kilometers north of Toronto to a mining
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town is, is, is, is not very odd. People don't often do that. So they're, they're, they're very
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disconnected from the mining cycle. So back to Saskatchewan, you've got the middle, the mid
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section where you have all the potash, uh, the north and the Athabasca, Athabasca basin is your uranium,
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uh, hotspot and no pun intended. It's, it's Cameco is one of the major companies. Uh, the French
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major uranium facility has been up there for decades. Um, uh, uh, number two producer globally.
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Yes. Uh, we've heard that for uranium. Um, as more projects come on stream, uh, it, it may Kazakhstan,
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I believe is number one. It may, it will, it may, it'll be a, a real battle who stays, uh, who,
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if Kazakhstan stays in the number one position or Saskatchewan overtakes them. But, uh,
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right again, and as nuclear becomes more important with all this drive for technology and AI and tech
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plants and data centers. Oh, absolutely. And it's carbon free. Uh, we, we don't have carbon
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emissions with nuclear. Um, it's the rate way to go for base load power, right? Like I, I, I'm not
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against wind or solar, but what the environmentalists don't tell the total truth is that they're
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intermittent. What do you do when the wind stops blowing? What do you do when the sun stops shining?
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You need base load. How do you get base load? Well, it's on one hand, you're basically coal,
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coal, uh, natural gas, coal fired, natural gas, nuclear, um, hydroelectric. Um, that's it.
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The, the, the, the, the, for, for, for a huge amount of, uh, base load, reliable power,
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DHP Billiton can't stop mining or GM can't stop, uh, producing cars when the wind stops blowing or the
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sun stops shining. Yeah, no, no, that makes sense. So, uh, rare earth minerals, are they in,
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so now help me out, Saskatchewan, there is a small, yes, there's a refinery, I believe.
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Okay. We don't have a lot of rare earth minerals in Canada, right? Not compared to China, compared to
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Australia, we're kind of in the low end of that category. Yes. Yeah. You know, the rare earth,
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it's, it's, it's actually a very tiny when you come, the, the biggest reason, the biggest mineral
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that we need to mine is iron ore because we make steel out of iron ore. Right. Okay. The number two
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is bauxite, which we make aluminum. Yes. Then it's, which we are the leader, right?
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Uh, in aluminum refining. Refining. Okay. Okay. Cause we don't have bauxite, uh, mines
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in Canada. What ends up happening is most of the mines are in the tropical area. Right. But the trick
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with aluminum is you want cheap power. Uh, so Quebec has historically said, okay, because of all the
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hydroelectric facilities in Quebec, we will give you very, very cheap power if you locate your smelter or
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refinery. Okay. Here in Quebec. Right. Okay. And so I believe there's nine smelters in Quebec,
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nine aluminum smelters, one aluminum refinery. Yeah. And then the other one is in Kitimat,
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BC, which is an aluminum smelter. And that's all based on cheap power rates or they have control
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over the, the, the river, uh, power production or the dam. Right. And that's where the US has struggled
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a little bit because they haven't been able, uh, aluminum is not their forte because of power rates
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and the fact then the nuclear and uranium and getting all that into play. It, you, they used to,
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I think Washington state was one of the major, uh, aluminum smelting regions of the U S historically.
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Yep. But as power rates started going up, uh, a lot of these aluminum facilities in the U S have closed.
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Yes. They have some, uh, and, and forgive me with the statistics, the U S sort of needs about
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3.5 million or somewhere in that range of, uh, aluminum every year they produce about
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10% or 12%. That's what I had heard. The rest comes from the Saguenay in Quebec. Yes. Or Kitimat.
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Right. And, and, and a lot of the aluminum smelters are in the Saguenay region of Quebec.
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Hmm. And they, they sometimes call it the kingdom of the Saguenay because it's,
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it's been historically, uh, for almost a hundred years, uh, since they started, uh, building aluminum
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smelters and, and, and transferring, converting bauxite into aluminum. Uh, you've had aluminum
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smelting going on in Quebec. Oh, okay. That long. Oh yes. Wow. During world war two. Yes.
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And those pesky Quebecers decided to go on strike in the Saguenay and the allies were in an uproar
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because it was absolutely critical for the world war two, the, the, the military, uh, plane production.
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And they were just livid because they, it was like almost a, a, a national crisis and they finally
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resolved it, but it was a real scary time because, uh, war production and they were absolutely dependent
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on the aluminum facilities in Quebec because Kitimat, I don't believe had been built yet.
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Oh, okay. Oh, that's good history. Yeah. So, um, so we've got Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan. I had salt
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here, which was interesting, but that's, we talked about that another time. And then, uh, Manitoba.
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Okay. They're just one final thing with Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan's kind of really interesting
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because people, it's under value to a lot of people in the middle of Saskatchewan, there's some
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Canadian shield and some, there's some copper deposits. One of the, one of the copper mines that
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Kearney had, uh, given the green light for, uh, uh, was in, uh, uh, in the middle of Saskatchewan.
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So you go over to, uh, Foran. Yeah. Yeah. And the town was, uh, it was a project that sat on hold for.
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Well, they were in the process of developing it. Like, I mean, my understanding is it's,
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they really didn't need Kearney's blessing because they've already, it was, it's such a good copper
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deposit. Yeah. It's already in, uh, not in production, but it was the, the, they're building
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it and, and it will come on stream fairly soon if. Okay. Yeah. Cause we have a map, you know,
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that we were going through before the show and we'll throw it up on the screen, but it shows, uh,
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all the mines that exist. It shows the refineries that exist and what the government calls on their
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website, advanced projects. Ah, okay. So I assume that was like one of those advanced projects,
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right? Absolutely. Okay. All right. So before we go to Manitoba, just one more thing. Um,
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tech has the, uh, trail BC, uh, zinc lead smelter and that's been in existence for since the early 1909,
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1910. So there they process the, there was zinc mines in BC, but they have closed down, but tech has a
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huge, uh, zinc lead mine in Alaska. Okay. And they shipped that concentrate down to the smelter
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where they refined it into zinc and lead products in Saskatchewan. Uh, no, in BC and trail BC. Okay.
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And is that part of the, this controversy that's kind of ongoing? We're going to be reading the paper
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all the time. The Anglo sorta. Yeah. Well, it is because that's part of the tech. Yeah. And of course,
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Anglo is trying to take over or wants to take over tech. Yeah. And, and I guess I'll just, since I'm,
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we're, we're on that topic, um, the federal government is basically saying, uh, you need to
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do more. Right. Uh, if we're going to allow you to take over our last base metal, uh, large base metal,
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uh, mining, uh, company. And what no one is really talking about is, uh, in BC, um, which is 50% of
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Canada's copper production, the, all the concentrate gets shipped over to Asian markets to be smelted
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and refined. A good chunk of it is China. Yeah. So security supply is such a number one priority
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for governments today in North America. Yet we're shipping us, uh, almost half of, of BC copper
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concentrate to China as well as to Japan and South Korea. Yes. And I'm advocating that if Anglo wants
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to take over tech, that they have to build a, uh, smelter refining complex in BC. And if not,
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go away. That's that to me. Uh, I'm very nationalistic on that. That is your key to entry.
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If you really want to tell me you're committed to this country and yes, it's expensive and yes,
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it's cheaper to get it done in China or, or, or Japan or, or South Korea. But, uh, if you want
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to take over the premier, uh, the number one, uh, critical minerals company in Canada, which is
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tech, then I believe you need to build a smelter refinery complex preferably and on the coast somewhere
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in Prince Rupert or Kitimat or somewhere there. Oh, okay. Good. I'll ruffle some feathers. I'm sure.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. I love it. Uh, Manitoba now, uh, Manitoba historically, um,
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has been the Thompson nickel belt, uh, and, um, Thompson, the, the town. Yeah. Uh, Inco,
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the old Inco found the, the, uh, the Thompson nickel deposit, I guess in the 1950s. And it took them,
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I believe the late fifties, early sixties, it took them about six years to build the mine,
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build the concentrator, build a smelter refinery complex, a railway spur in the town. Okay.
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It was because there was such a shortage of nickel at the time because prime at, in the fifties,
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the majority of nickel was coming out of the Sudbury base. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And so they were
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really desperate to get an alternative supply going. And of course you had the cold war military
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buildup. Nickel is absolutely critical for everything to do with war because stainless steel
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and batteries and well batteries now, but back then it was stainless steel and nickel hardened steel.
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Right. Right. Okay. For like all the equipment we got, I'll get, I'll, I'll expand on that when we
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get to Sudbury. Okay. Okay. But, uh, so they, when they built Thompson, it was the largest private
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sector investment in Manitoba history at that time, because it was such a massive complex and they did
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it in record time. Oh, and it was quite amazing. Cool. Um, zinc. So it, in Manitoba.
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Yeah. You know what? I, I've just gotten a little bit of a, I can't remember. Well,
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that's all right. Okay. So zinc, but zinc is used for galvanizing. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.
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I didn't, you know, resistant and yeah, exactly. I was trying to think what zinc was used for. And
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then all of a sudden it kind of this morning, I was going through it. Um, lithium, which is growing,
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it's starting. Yes. Lithium was nor it was now it's becoming, um, was the topic of the, the year,
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I guess, or the two years. Um, there is a small lithium mine in Manitoba. Uh, but now you,
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you've got lithium exploration all across, um, the country. Um, the hotspot tends to be
00:24:06.820
in the James Bay region of Quebec. I, I, I mean, you know, you have small juniors saying, well,
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I've got 10 million tons of lithium and I'm going to build a refinery. Uh, that's really stretching
00:24:19.300
the truth. You need around 40, 50, 60 million tons of lithium. Okay. Above 1%. Like if you're going
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to be taken seriously by the big boys and you're going to be talking about a refinery,
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you need to see those numbers. Okay. Okay. Um, and so if you have juniors that have a very small
00:24:45.140
deposit, I, I, I am dubious of all their, their, uh, exclamation, their PowerPoint presentations and
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stuff, you, you need to basically look at, you know, um, like I say, 40, 50, 60 million tons,
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then we're talking, then, then we're looking at some legitimacy there. Okay. Uh, I'm not saying
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that these small ones can't find enough to get to that threshold, but until they get to that threshold,
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um, they have to do a lot more drilling to, uh, shore up the deposits that they do have.
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Oh, okay. And there's gold in Manitoba too? And I'm trying to think.
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There's the, the section of Manitoba that is an extension of the Canadian Shield in north or western
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Ontario. There's, uh, one or two gold mines. Okay. I believe. Oh, interesting. And, uh, like you said,
00:25:39.460
the refineries, it goes from there probably to BC. Uh, the gold? Yeah. No. Um, if you,
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gold is generally what you have is a gold deposit and then within a circle of a hundred, maybe 200
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miles, uh, or kilometers, you have a mill. Right. Or it could be beside, depends on, uh,
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uh, it, it, it's all fluid because gold mines come and go. Yes. Once the mill is there, well,
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then they'll look for feed from other gold mines to, uh, process it, get it up to, I think, uh, a dory
00:26:17.460
bar, which is like 96, 97% pure. And then that goes to a refinery to get it to 199.9% pure. Oh,
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okay. All right. I gotcha. Um, Ontario, of course, let's go to that. Now this one's the hotbed,
00:26:31.620
right? Yeah. Yeah. First we'll start in my hometown of Sudbury. Okay. Okay. Are you from
00:26:38.100
Sudbury? Yes. Oh, I didn't know. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's great. A lot of friends. I spent a lot of
00:26:42.260
time. I had a project up there and when I was younger, I loved it up there. It's at Sudbury Saturday
00:26:47.700
night. There's 130 years of mining history. Um, basically nickel, copper, PGMs, um, the big nickel.
00:26:58.020
Yes. Uh, absolutely. Um, uh, you've got, uh, mines that Creighton mine started in 1901.
00:27:06.020
Still going. Yeah. So some of these, some of these mines, uh, last longer than auto assembly plants.
00:27:13.060
Yeah. Yeah. People think the end all and be all, and I'm not knocking auto assembly plants. Um, my,
00:27:20.020
I was born in Sudbury, but my mother's sister lived in London, Ontario and her husband worked for the
00:27:24.820
Ford plant in St. Thomas. Okay. And that lasted, that was closed years ago. And yet, uh, and, and,
00:27:33.380
and, and the drive was the rough and tumble roads of Northern Ontario, which the governments at that time,
00:27:39.140
cause I'm a little bit older, did not pave the highways. Then you get into Southern Ontario and
00:27:43.940
those smooth highways. That's where Northern Ontario resentment started. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:50.260
But, um, with all the logging trucks and everything, and all the trucks coming in those old dirt roads,
00:27:55.940
I remember. Yeah. So we went to North Bay. So when we came to Canada, and then we came down to the city,
00:28:03.140
of course, when trades were needed. So I remember, you know, as a kid being up there.
00:28:07.300
Yeah. Oh, it's a lot of, you know, the Northern Ontario, the, the biggest boom came during the
00:28:15.060
1950s when basically America was the manufacturer to the world. America back in the fifties was the
00:28:21.460
China of today. They basically, Europe was devastated after the war, uh, rebuilding same with Asia. So
00:28:30.820
anything of significant manufacturing capability was in Eisenhower's America. Yes. Uh, and so the
00:28:37.780
amount of material that you needed, enormous amounts of raw material to go into these manufacturing
00:28:44.420
facilities in the America during that boom time. And that's when Northern Ontario boomed because they
00:28:50.180
needed our nickel, our copper, our platinum group metals. They needed our zinc. They needed our lumber.
00:28:56.660
Um, they needed our steel, Algoma, uh, in Sault Ste. Marie. It was a time where, and that was when my
00:29:04.420
parents, Polish immigrants, um, ended up coming to Sudbury because it was enormous amount of prosperity
00:29:10.660
at that time. Yeah. Uh, it, it's kind of funny. We're almost going back to the future again because
00:29:17.060
resources are now paramount on everyone's agenda. Yeah. And at that time, it was just sort of a natural,
00:29:23.780
uh, boom time where, where, where we needed to produce the raw materials for that huge partner
00:29:30.820
of ours, America. Yeah. So did when, so when you, your family came, did you work in the mining industry?
00:29:36.980
Um, your father, your, well, my dad worked in the mill. Okay. All my neighbors in Sudbury were, uh,
00:29:45.940
either working for Inco or Falcon Bridge. Uh, Sudbury, um, had mines, they had mills and they had the
00:29:53.140
big smelter. The refinery wasn't built until I believe the early seventies. Okay. All right.
00:29:58.740
So you had everyone working, uh, and then Falcon Bridge didn't have a refinery, but it had a smelter
00:30:05.940
and then obviously mines and, uh, a mill. Right. So everybody, it was a lunch bucket town.
00:30:12.420
Oh yeah. No, I remember. And before I went away to college in 77, I worked for a year at Clarable
00:30:19.780
Mill and then in 19, and then the layoff started. Uh, and, but there was an uptick in 1980. So I went
00:30:28.180
and worked underground at the Fruit Stobie mine for one summer. So I said, I got my PhD in ditch digging
00:30:35.140
underground at the Fruit Stobie, but it was, um, good for you. Great experience. You sort of understand,
00:30:42.020
uh, what it's like and, um, uh, what my, my dad went through and what most of my neighbors went
00:30:47.940
through all their lives. So it was quite, uh, an eye opener. Yeah. My grandfather was forestry. So,
00:30:53.380
yeah, so that's what he did. And then when they needed trades to come into the city to come build
00:30:58.020
Toronto, they were all trades people from Italy. So then they were brought down to little Italy in
00:31:03.060
Toronto, of course, and all nine of them. And, uh, so all nine all moved together like a pack,
00:31:08.820
right? So they landed back in Toronto and off we went. Yeah. Those towers downtown were basically,
00:31:15.140
and, and the suburban belts around Toronto were built by the Italians and Portuguese to a degree,
00:31:21.140
but, but by and large primary, it was the Italian immigrants who, who did a lot of the grunt work,
00:31:26.980
uh, at the beginning. Well, the developers used to come up in, so in North Bay in that time,
00:31:31.380
they used to come up cause you'd go Halifax, North Bay or Sudbury or in Northern city. Right.
00:31:36.420
Uh, if you're coming in from Italy usually and, uh, because it was after the war. So they would
00:31:41.620
actually come up and recruit people to come down into the city and then, you know, tell you how
00:31:46.420
great it was. It wasn't so great. No, honestly, we got her, but they built these centers, which was so
00:31:51.620
smart. They built these clubs. Yes. You know, the different Italian clubs. Yes. So when you got here,
00:31:56.340
you'd actually be able to find people that you could relate to. So you wanted to stay. Yeah.
00:32:00.340
There's a lot of people came down first and they're like, oh, it's just terrible, but it worked.
00:32:04.900
I don't think they get, I don't think the city gives enough credit to the Italians in regards to
00:32:10.980
the, uh, the, the huge, huge contribution they made from the fifties onwards to, uh, building,
00:32:17.140
uh, both the suburbs and, and the downtown towers. Now you, now it's hard to find it. It's interesting
00:32:22.260
because it's so shifted. The demographics shifted so much now, you know, a lot of the Italians left the
00:32:28.020
trades, which is a shame because yeah, yeah, it really is. Yeah. Um, so, so, so Sudbury number one,
00:32:34.180
uh, so you, it's nickel, like I said, nickel, copper, PGMs, but there's also a lot of cobalt.
00:32:41.620
Okay. Oh, I always forget cobalt. Sudbury's, um, uh, a polymetallic ore. So it's, it's, it's not just,
00:32:50.260
this is why Sudbury lasted as long as it did. When the nickel price went down, opera was up. Well,
00:32:56.820
then we would just, they would, you know, do a little bit more, uh, there seems they wouldn't
00:33:01.460
focus on the copper as opposed to the nickel. Uh, but not only that you have cobalt and then on top
00:33:08.020
of cobalt, you have gold and silver. Right. And there's significant amount of gold, uh,
00:33:13.860
Sudbury after the gold camp, Sudbury is one of the major, uh, historic producers of gold in, uh,
00:33:20.740
the Ontario. So it was blessed by many of different metallic spoons. Right. Which allowed
00:33:27.540
it to, to weather the up and downs of the, uh, the, uh, nickel market. Cause it was so cyclic.
00:33:34.500
Uh, and then of course, during world war II, my God, at that time, 70% of, or 80% of, uh,
00:33:41.220
Western nickel production came from Sudbury. There was no top 70%. Yes. Well, I didn't know that.
00:33:48.180
Okay. There was no Thompson at the time during world war II. Oh yeah. Of course.
00:33:51.780
There was no voices Bay. Yeah. There was no Northern. It was Sudbury and it was basically,
00:33:58.740
um, uh, one year, well, this was even before the union. It was like a real rough and tumble town.
00:34:04.900
It was hardcore back then. Cause it was really hard working in the minds in the 1940s,
00:34:11.380
especially during the war era because it was production, production, production. And unfortunately,
00:34:16.100
there was a lot of accidents. Um, but it was, and when the Saguenay aluminum workers went on strike,
00:34:25.940
the government was really terrified that it might spread to the nickel miners in Sudbury. And so they
00:34:32.900
went all out to let the nickel miners know that even though you're not in the war, your contributions
00:34:39.060
of the nickel mines are as critical as our guys fighting overseas. And that's true because you,
00:34:44.980
you have, of course you had the, uh, the mine, the mill, the smelter in Sudbury,
00:34:49.620
then the material would go down to Port Colburn to get, uh, refined to pure nickel. Then that material
00:34:55.700
would go to a Huntington, West Virginia, where they make the nickel hardened steels, which went in the
00:35:01.700
aircraft carriers, which went in the B-29s, uh, tanks, ordnance, everything that went boom,
00:35:09.380
fired in world during war two had a component of nickel. Yeah. So it was absolutely, uh, critical
00:35:17.940
and there were shortages. And then even in the 1950s, uh, with the cold war and the Korean war,
00:35:23.460
uh, it was constant, constant fear of pent for the Pentagon of nickel shortages to the point where
00:35:31.940
in the early fifties, uh, and the, and the, and the guys in the Pentagon were really getting nervous
00:35:37.060
that they're depending on Inco too much. So they literally subsidized Falconbridge in $40 million in
00:35:44.660
the early 1950s, which by today's inflation would be almost $400 million roughly to build more nickel mines.
00:35:53.540
because they wanted to break Inco's monopoly on the nickel trade. Um, so it was fascinating
00:36:01.060
part of history. And then on top of it, you had union battles because they finally unionized during
00:36:06.580
the war. Yeah. But then there was the fifties. You had a left leaning union mine mill and a right
00:36:11.940
leaning union steel workers. Uh, and they were worried. And there were some communists in mine mill.
00:36:20.260
And this is a time of, um, very fearsome, uh, uh, cold war era. And so there was a real systematic,
00:36:31.540
uh, drive to, um, uh, take control of the union by, uh, right leaning, uh, mind mill. I'm not my email
00:36:39.060
steel workers. Okay. Anyways, we're, we're going on a tangent. No, no, I like it. I like it. I like it.
00:36:43.460
I didn't know that actually. That's a, that's a great story. And I'm a big, uh, I'm a big mining
00:36:48.740
historian. Yeah. Yeah. So I love it. Yeah. I love it. So, so now you have Sudbury. Now we go next
00:36:53.780
door to Elliott Lake, which during the cold war era was again, hugely important for the, uh, the atomic
00:37:00.740
bomb production in the U S and, uh, again, uh, a critical part of, um, American, uh, military
00:37:10.100
planning because they wanted to get as many bombs built as quickly as possible. Uh, and so that's
00:37:16.580
what you, again, a town that just almost grew up through overnight, uh, and, uh, lasted for a few
00:37:25.060
years. And then the uranium, the government, the American government canceled the contracts,
00:37:30.020
the first bust. And then they were another bus, uh, boom came when, when they started using uranium
00:37:35.860
in a nuclear power plants, but finally the, or was getting low grade, the, or in the Athabasca
00:37:43.140
basin in Saskatchewan was much higher. And so Elliott Lake became, uh, uh, semi ghost town. And, uh,
00:37:50.820
that was that, that's uranium. I've been to Elliott Lake forever. Oh, it's, it's a pretty,
00:37:55.940
my brother was pretty. Yeah. My brother worked for Denison. Oh, I was back and forth to Elliott
00:38:03.220
Lake quite often. So it was quite, uh, uh, a nice picturesque time. Yeah. Nice place to live,
00:38:08.740
to retire and disappear. Yeah. Unless you, you know, it's just a bit isolating and, and, and winter,
00:38:16.180
you think winter is bad in Sudbury, Elliott Lake. But we're spoiled by the lack of snow in Toronto.
00:38:22.340
Yeah. Yeah, we are. Ring of fire. Um, before we go to the ring of fire, let's talk about the gold
00:38:27.700
camps in Ontario. So, so basically, uh, it, it starts like this. They're building a railroad in Northern
00:38:34.900
Ontario connect the farming country in the foreign North, the clay belt. Okay. So at a place called
00:38:40.740
cobalt, uh, allegedly they, uh, some prospectors threw an ax at a Fox and when they went to get the
00:38:47.860
hack, the ax back, they saw this funny material and voila, uh, a silver boom that was extraordinary.
00:38:55.860
Uh, I think eventually 400 million ounces of silver, um, making it one of the primary silver
00:39:03.540
booms in North America. Oh, um, the knowledge that we built in the money that we made ended up.
00:39:15.220
People started, uh, understanding the geology of the Canadian shield. So they went further north and in
00:39:22.340
1909 discovered Simmons, uh, and, uh, the biggest gold camp in Canada with, I think, 75 million ounces and
00:39:32.740
counting. Then they discovered around 1912 or 1916 Kirkland Lake. And then they thought, well,
00:39:41.780
there's a provincial border, but the geology doesn't stop. So they went over to Ruan Naranda,
00:39:47.940
which is basically Quebec's version of the Klondike, uh, big copper gold production. Then they went further
00:39:54.900
and, uh, and, uh, and, and found Valdor, uh, another big gold camp. And then just, just a side
00:40:01.460
transient with, uh, Valdor. Well, they brought in a smelter in the late twenties. And in 1931,
00:40:10.100
Naranda, the company that had it built a refinery in Montreal, 1931 depression, Canada,
00:40:17.940
and you built a copper refinery. Why not? The mayor must've thought he died and gone to heaven.
00:40:24.980
Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, you had a lot of cheap trades, right? People around and time to build.
00:40:30.020
In 1930s, you used a lot more manpower than you did in, uh, 2025. Yeah.
00:40:35.460
All these facilities, smelters, refineries are still in existence. The two smelters in Sudbury were
00:40:42.740
built in the 1930s. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay.
00:40:44.660
These are multi-generational facilities. Once you build it and you pay for it, it's a cap. I, I know
00:40:54.340
there's problems right now with, with, um, uh, issues of concentrate and, and, and the, um, uh, the,
00:41:04.740
the financial challenges some of these smelters are having, but they are absolutely strategic
00:41:10.260
for our critical mineral strategy. Okay. You cannot just have concentrate. You need to be able to
00:41:17.060
smelt and refine these materials or else you're, you're, you're, you're not getting the full benefit
00:41:23.780
of the resource. Right. So that was, I didn't know that, that, that those gold went that far over.
00:41:30.740
Yes. Yeah. Actually, that shocked me a little when you started to go further into Quebec.
00:41:34.420
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And then, then we got to, uh, Red Lake, which is the last big, uh, gold rush camp
00:41:42.580
in the 1920s, uh, still going today and Hemlo in 1980, uh, and still going today. I remember.
00:41:49.700
So these are like fasting, uh, enormous economic, um, uh, econ, um, economic, um, stimulation for
00:42:01.700
these regions. Oh, a boom. Absolutely. Yeah. And, and help seeing, uh, helping with, uh,
00:42:07.140
gold production for the entire country. And the funny thing is we don't talk about
00:42:11.140
gold production that much in Canada. So quite funny. We talk a little bit about it, but the normal
00:42:15.860
Joe public, we don't, we are a major gold producer. I think number four or in the world.
00:42:23.060
And when I dug in to get ready for this show, I actually, it's funny, the things you forget in
00:42:27.140
life. And I was going through kind of figuring out which, where we ranked. And I was shocked how,
00:42:32.340
how prominent we are in gold. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. So now the ring of fire. So people think it's
00:42:39.060
overhyped. Well, no, it's, it, it, it, it, the problem is we don't have the road infrastructure
00:42:46.820
into it yet, which is what's been delaying it. Yeah. Okay. Forever it seems. Well, you know,
00:42:52.500
it's complicated because you've got first nations issues today and, and, and I'm not, you know, you,
00:42:57.300
you want to make sure that they are an integral part of the development process and that they get the
00:43:02.260
benefits because historically they did not. But, uh, first you have Wailu, you have your, um, your nickel
00:43:09.860
copper, um, uh, platinum group metal mine, which is about a 17 year mine life, but they feel it will
00:43:19.540
last a lot longer. Then you have Juno, which is basically a junior exploration. Two interesting
00:43:27.140
discoveries earlier this year. Uh, they made, they had something like 28 out of 30,
00:43:34.180
I believe drill holes, 28 of them showed gold in various degrees. So the ring of fire is now turning
00:43:40.420
into a possible gold camp. Uh, they're going to. Really? Absolutely. Oh, I didn't know that.
00:43:46.500
I knew that their company out of Sault Ste. Marie did the drill, the, did most of the research on it.
00:43:52.020
Cause they kept reading kind of reports from, uh, one of the consulting companies out of the
00:43:56.660
suit kept writing that they were finding stuff, but I didn't realize it was that much gold.
00:44:00.500
Oh, it's there. The company raised another $20 million roughly the past few months. And, uh,
00:44:07.140
they will start another big, um, drilling program, uh, in February, I believe. Oh, wow.
00:44:13.460
So there's that, but they also discovered a critical mineral discovery. It's a mix of titanium,
00:44:22.260
vanadium and scandium. Okay. Okay. Rare. Are they in the rare? Well, Scandinavian, Scandinavian,
00:44:31.620
sorry, uh, might be considered a rare earth. Okay. Not vanadium or titanium. Yeah. Um, it's
00:44:38.420
roughly a billion tons of this, this interesting raw billion. Oh, just a back of the envelope
00:44:45.940
estimation. Titanium is used for, uh, aerospace. Yeah. Uh, and mel and medicals. Okay. And the, uh,
00:44:56.020
all three of these minerals, the top producers are China and Russia. So there you see some problems
00:45:02.340
here. Okay. Okay. Titanium military applications, uh, scandium, uh, helps harden aluminum. Yes. And
00:45:10.260
is used in, um, uh, computer chips that have military applications. Yes. And then vanadium is used to
00:45:20.580
harden steel and it's also used for battery storage. Oh, so these are all very critical minerals that we
00:45:31.700
need in the future of electrification as well as security supply with military production. Okay. And all
00:45:39.060
three of them can have refineries built. And then let's not forget about the chromite. Built up.
00:45:46.580
Well, not, not up there because it, it, it, it's too isolated, but probably built in Thunder Bay or
00:45:51.540
Sudbury. Thunder Bay. Yeah. Uh, Wailoo is wanting to build a specific nickel refinery in Sudbury
00:45:58.340
that produces materials specifically for the electric vehicle market. And the, um, the chromite is,
00:46:06.420
is the term, the global mail just dismissed the chromite is not a critical mineral, but
00:46:12.260
over half of chromite is produced in South Africa. And that's a huge problem with, they have a huge
00:46:16.980
problem with electricity. A lot of the chromite smelters are shutting down. It may become a priority
00:46:24.980
again, depending on what happens in South Africa. So it's a secure, uh, huge resource of something that is
00:46:32.260
absolutely essential for stainless steel, uh, in North America. Okay. So chromite goes into stainless
00:46:38.500
steel. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Okay. All right. And you would like to, and you would have a chromite
00:46:42.740
ferrochrome facility built somewhere in the province as well. Yep. So when I say that it's a, a, a huge
00:46:49.780
foundation for a lot of new industry in Ontario and the Ontario government, of course, has been doing a lot of
00:46:56.020
advertising. And, um, so it, it, it, it, it, there, there is a lot of foundational industry. Yeah. And
00:47:02.500
then with foundational industries, you get feeder industries like in, in aluminum in Quebec, because
00:47:07.940
they have all the smelters, uh, there's a lot of secondary industry, uh, in manufacturing aluminum.
00:47:13.780
Exactly. So this is why it's so important and we shouldn't dismiss it because it's taking a bit of time.
00:47:22.500
Um, it, it, it will come to the fore and, um, and it will help because something that was in Toronto,
00:47:29.460
um, uh, start today, the manufacturing sector in Ontario for the first time since 1976 fell below 10%.
00:47:41.380
Yes. And even 205, 17%, 10%, 17, in 205, 17% of the economy was, uh, the, uh, was manufacturing.
00:47:55.540
Ontario was because of the tariffs, because of the challenges Ontario's in trouble.
00:48:00.180
Yeah. We're not, we're not making anything. No. And we, we, we gave up on making and quite frankly,
00:48:05.700
well, and we, we became financial services, real estate. We, we, we, and you can't create economy.
00:48:13.700
Those, those two things are not an economy. No. And, and, and not by far.
00:48:18.180
And that this is where the ring of like gold is great, but there's just a limited use for gold.
00:48:23.700
Okay. It just gets fed into the financial services. Base metal mines are the foundation of an economy.
00:48:30.340
Yes. Of going up the value chain and bringing in manufacturing that is dependent on that.
00:48:37.460
But it's also gives us leverage with Donald Trump and the Americans. And that's something people are
00:48:43.300
forgetting. Right. Uh, if what, that's why the premier is so enthusiastic about the ring of fire,
00:48:52.500
because it gives him some aces in his back pocket to say, look at all these military applicable
00:48:59.700
critical minerals. We will be mining that will give you America security supply that will make
00:49:07.460
sure your military doesn't have to depend on China and Russia for these materials.
00:49:12.020
Right. The trillion dollars a year they spend on. Absolutely. Yeah. On, uh, the military.
00:49:18.180
Yes. Yes. You cannot be dependent on China or Russia for these materials. And this is why, uh,
00:49:24.980
we need to pay attention to the ring of fire. We need to forward it faster, but we also need to do it
00:49:32.020
with, um, uh, consultation with first nations. And Ontario already has an agreement with, uh,
00:49:39.780
WebEquay, the closest community. It's had an agreement with Arrowland, the gateway into the ring of fire.
00:49:45.540
And as we speak, uh, there's a news conference at Queens park with Martin falls, and I'm assuming
00:49:53.540
there's a, they're signing an agreement as well. Oh, good, good. So that's terrific.
00:49:57.940
So this is a win win on so many levels, regionally first nation, the entire Ontario and Canadian
00:50:04.260
economy. Yeah, no, that's terrific. And I, and I hope they're kind of, you know, one of the things
00:50:09.460
I hear as I go around Stan and about the ring of fire is a lot of infrastructure needs to go in
00:50:14.820
to make it work. Right. So roads and housing and everything needs to go in. And we just want to make
00:50:20.180
sure that that's, that's going to Canadians. Number one, number two, there, whatever government
00:50:24.500
puts into it, there's an ability to recoup it. So they, you know, they've done the work to make
00:50:28.900
sure, you know, they've done deals with the developers. They have money coming back once
00:50:32.660
they get it all in place, you know, so they're, they're not offshoring it. And that's one of the
00:50:37.380
things that people, I think that's a little bit of the skepticism I'm hearing now. And people are,
00:50:42.820
you know, you mentioned nationalistic, you know, uh, I think people are just like, okay, that's fine,
00:50:48.900
but money has to come back into Canada. So whatever we do here, we can't, you know,
00:50:53.940
see a bunch of foreign investors peeling money out of the country to just to create jobs for
00:50:59.380
Canadians. And that's not good enough anymore. So, and I think that's, you know, another show
00:51:04.260
probably to go through, but, but, you know, something to think about, um, you know, and I'd
00:51:08.980
love, you know, when you mentioned, you know, so from and mining, quite frankly, a number of, uh,
00:51:14.900
facets or stages, right? So you have the, uh, the exploration and the geoscience,
00:51:20.900
then you have the extraction, then the processing, the advanced manufacturing and the recycling.
00:51:26.260
So that's the full cycle of it. And that's what creates all the jobs, as you mentioned before,
00:51:31.060
that they come into it. Um, Quebec, everything leads back to Quebec. It seems every Quebec is kind
00:51:37.380
of the, and it not leads back to Quebec, but as you mentioned a couple of times, Quebec is so, uh,
00:51:43.540
critical, uh, in the mineral, critical minerals, uh, critical, uh, in the mining sector.
00:51:51.860
Well, the first you've got, uh, the only copper refinery and the only copper smelter,
00:51:57.620
you know, the copper refinery in Montreal, the copper smelter in Rouen, uh, you have an industrial
00:52:03.220
strategy that I think BC should copy from the Quebecers, uh, with the, uh, uh, the cheap power rates
00:52:11.300
and the, uh, the nine, uh, aluminum smelters and refine in one refinery that is in that province.
00:52:18.420
And then you have all the spinoffs from the, uh, uh, aluminum, um, uh, smelting, uh, in the, uh,
00:52:25.060
going up the value chain. I think Quebec is a, an absolutely excellent example. Uh, and on top of it,
00:52:32.420
I, I, I, I forgot to mention the iron ore mines in the Labrador trough, which is split between
00:52:38.260
Newfoundland and Quebec, uh, which again, high quality iron ore, uh, which was built in the 1950s
00:52:47.220
and 60s and the infrastructure that goes into producing that. Uh, yeah, it's a, an industrial
00:52:53.940
corridor, um, on that, that people are sort of largely unaware of because so much of our mining,
00:53:00.500
uh, in all the provinces are normally in the north and we tend to ignore it because everyone's just
00:53:05.780
focused on either downtown Vancouver or, or the, um, uh, the, uh, the GTA or the greater GTA.
00:53:14.100
Well, the East coast, you know, my friend Blair, uh, he keeps telling me I have to do something with
00:53:19.300
him down there on the business front and how well the economy is doing right now. So he's, you know,
00:53:24.180
housing there isn't hitting the bump we're hitting here. Okay. So adjustments aren't happening. And,
00:53:29.380
you know, between resources right now, he's, you know, he's in St. John's. He's telling me like,
00:53:34.340
like things are hopping. Uh, so I can see why, right. Between mining and, uh, gas and oil.
00:53:40.420
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. It's happening. Right. So, so Atlantic Canada. So, um, as you mentioned,
00:53:46.260
so, uh, nickel, copper, cobalt, iron in Newfoundland and Labrador. So, and the big
00:53:52.580
Boise Bay, uh, facility in, uh, Labrador, which, which is just a massive, uh, and the huge fight that
00:54:00.100
Inko had with Falcon bridge, uh, in the late nineties and, uh, which Inko ultimately won.
00:54:06.500
Um, and there's, uh, um, uh, hydromet nickel refinery and on the island of Newfoundland that,
00:54:12.900
that basically is processing it up the value chain. Yeah. But even yesterday in the, um, uh,
00:54:18.740
the national post, um, or the financial post, uh, it was an interesting article about, uh, the increase
00:54:24.580
in gold exploration on the island of Newfoundland. Uh, I didn't know that I was pretty surprised too.
00:54:30.260
And, uh, it's a growing concern where there's a lot of, uh, new exploration and, um, uh, there's
00:54:36.980
a new gold mine that started production recently, Equinox, I believe. And you have a lot of other,
00:54:44.260
uh, juniors who are, uh, actively drilling. So, wow. So it is going from coast to coast to,
00:54:50.100
uh, even, even, well, I mean, obviously the Northwest territories, diamonds, um, and, um,
00:54:58.420
Yeah. And base metal exploration. Yeah. Uh, no, uh, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick. So,
00:55:05.940
uh, you know, of course there's a few mines, but, uh, lead, I guess in New Brunswick, um,
00:55:13.220
not the, uh, there is smaller deposits, not, not, nothing is major. I mean, there were,
00:55:21.540
it used to be, uh, in New Brunswick, uh, a fairly, uh, sizable nink, uh, zinc, ink, sorry,
00:55:28.100
zinc. Okay. Province where, where you had mines there. Um, I believe there was even a smelter there,
00:55:34.500
uh, at one time, but they closed because the mines, uh, shut down. Okay. Uh, a little bit of gold
00:55:39.780
exploration in Nova Scotia, um, but not to the same extent that you see in Northern Quebec or Northern
00:55:47.220
Ontario. Okay. All right. Northwest territories. Diamonds. Diamonds. Diamonds. Diamonds. Girl's best
00:55:54.900
friend. Uh, absolutely, um, had a positive impact on indigenous communities. Uh, you, it's, it's basically,
00:56:05.700
um, uh, the territory went all in, you ended up having, um, a lot of, um, uh, uh, indigenous owned
00:56:15.940
companies that were servicing the diamond mines. Yeah. Uh, uh, uh, a casebook study of how to do it
00:56:21.620
right. Uh, and then you go to Nineveh and yeah, the, the absolute, I cannot say enough about Agnico Eagle.
00:56:31.940
If there is a gold company that has become, uh, the biggest gold company in Canada, uh, uh, of basically
00:56:40.260
a, a textbook example of how to do indigenous engagement, right. How to do local sourcing,
00:56:46.020
how to, uh, look after the environment. Uh, I mean, you see that in Nunavut, uh, the, um, Agnico
00:56:53.860
mines are about 25% of the GDP of Nunavut and, uh, in deep, uh, and they, um, you'll see them in
00:57:03.220
Kirkland Lake. You'll see them in detour gold mine, which is north of Cochrane. Uh, you'll see them in
00:57:10.180
northwestern Quebec. Uh, they are in Finland. Uh, again, they are the, the premier, uh, Canadian
00:57:21.540
quintessential gold mine minor and, and, and they do, they do everything right. And, and, and people,
00:57:29.300
you, you just don't see people complaining about what they do. I, I, I can't talk highly enough
00:57:34.580
about that company. Yeah. My friend Peter up there was, uh, he's told me like their karma is super
00:57:39.860
good because they, they just keep, you know, they understand the climate, the people, uh, and they know
00:57:44.980
how to work with people. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I've heard good things too. Yeah. Uh, Yukon. Um,
00:57:51.940
again, unfortunately there was the, the, the problem with the, uh, the gold open pit. There was a
00:57:59.780
failing, um, and, and that's really unfortunate because it's just sort of people see the bad apple,
00:58:05.780
uh, because there's an enormous, uh, uh, copper, um, gold. I don't know if it's gold, but it's a copper
00:58:15.540
deposit that is of the same level, uh, of magnitude is what, uh, Tex Highland Valley in central BC is a
00:58:24.740
huge, uh, multi-generational copper mine and they're developed there. Hopefully they're developing that
00:58:30.420
and it could have an enormous benefit, uh, for the Yukon economy, uh, and also, uh, for the entire
00:58:40.900
Canadian economy because it's copper. Yeah. Uh, place your gold mining, uh, historically because of
00:58:47.300
the, uh, the Klondike gold rush. Yeah. Uh, so it was there, uh, and I believe there's a, there was the old
00:58:56.180
Kino silver lead deposit, which, which they basically, uh, closed down, uh, but now people
00:59:04.820
are sort of poking around, uh, uh, at the historical, uh, area and see if they're finding new deposits
00:59:11.940
or not. I was up in Yellowknife just before COVID and we went over to the Yukon. Yeah. I was, I was,
00:59:18.340
it seemed like things were starting again. Like you just had a good vibe. People seem to be working
00:59:23.700
projects. The first nations were actually getting involved up there. Government was interested.
00:59:29.140
Yeah. It, it, you know, I hope it does. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It, it, it, uh, around the world when,
00:59:38.180
when done right, mining has this enormous ability to, um, bring, um, marginalized people,
00:59:47.700
uh, increase their standard of living. Yeah. Uh, and, and you've seen that over and over again,
00:59:54.500
uh, especially like I say, in Agnico Eagle with, um, the Inuit in, uh, none of it, uh, and, um,
01:00:03.380
detour gold indigenous involvement. Um, I remember years ago, um, uh, watching the, uh, reading about the
01:00:11.700
mayor of Baker Lake, which is close to where the mines are in, uh, none of it complaining because they
01:00:17.060
were not enough parking spaces for all the half ton trucks that the workers had bought. Yeah.
01:00:23.780
Yeah. I mean, that is the definitive. Yeah. Yeah. That, that is my dad owned a half ton truck.
01:00:28.340
It is the definitive vehicle in mining camps and, and, and that the prosperity and, and what,
01:00:35.460
and also a great issue with, with, um, the open pit mines in, uh, Nunavut is, uh, that, uh,
01:00:43.540
they employ a lot of women and they find that the women are easier on the trucks than the men.
01:00:48.340
Oh, it's your, your, your sense. And, and, and you're, you know, everyone, you, you, you don't
01:00:54.740
even need to finish high school to learn how to drive a truck. Yeah. Like you're empowering people
01:00:59.540
who are on welfare, uh, who were struggling and, and, and are getting paid top industrial dollar now,
01:01:05.780
uh, working for a mining company. Um, the largest employer of indigenous people in the country is the
01:01:11.780
mining sector or oil. I mean, I, they, I, I, I've been brainwashed. I've heard that so many times,
01:01:17.540
but between the oil industry and the, um, uh, the mining industry by far, those are the two resource
01:01:24.740
areas are the largest employer of indigenous people in the country. Well, Stan, we've been,
01:01:29.300
you know, we've been told our, you know, most of our lives, how critical mineral mining is for Canada.
01:01:36.180
Is it underutilized so that, you know, when I listened to you and I, uh, your passion for it is
01:01:40.420
unbelievable. I, I'd love, you know, you're a historian, you understand it. You know, I,
01:01:45.620
I come away all the time when I, when I talk to people about my, I think to myself,
01:01:50.500
is this just one sector that's just so underutilized right now? So under,
01:01:55.060
cause you know, it, it makes up, it makes up roughly 4% of our total GDP. Yeah. And I think we
01:02:01.540
could like, you know, and I think to myself all the time, like we do have the critical resources.
01:02:06.340
We could do more with it. Is it just that we're, you know, uh, I guess we've, we've moved away from
01:02:13.700
it at some point and now we're coming back to it. Is this the resurgence? Is this the, you know,
01:02:19.140
the new era where you're going to see it blossom to 10, 12, 14% of our GDP? Um, because we're such a,
01:02:27.140
uh, a large, uh, $2 trillion economy. Um, I don't know if it'll go that high. However, there is, um,
01:02:39.060
uh, a renewed focus, as you say, security supply has become paramount because of what's happening
01:02:46.340
with China and Russia. Um, whereas, um, 10 years ago, ah, it's cheaper. Let's just get it from Russia
01:02:54.500
or let's get the material from China. Well, that doesn't cut it anymore. Right. Uh,
01:02:59.060
so there is a renewed focus on, uh, do we have these deposits here? Yes. Uh, what do we need to
01:03:05.940
do to access them? Uh, the investment, uh, in, in road infrastructure for starters, uh, and, and,
01:03:13.620
and let's get on with it. And, and I think this is what the premier of Ontario was trying to do with
01:03:18.660
the ring of fire. Uh, but, um, we also have to realize that, uh, because of global warming,
01:03:24.820
um, the traditional, uh, winter roads that we have in Northwestern Ontario to access these isolated
01:03:31.140
communities is not working because the winter road season is going shorter and shorter.
01:03:36.020
Right. Uh, so it's becoming more expensive. If you can't get the heavy bulk stuff up during the
01:03:40.900
winter road season, you're after going to fly it in and it's very expensive. And then number two,
01:03:45.860
uh, which was really painfully obvious this summer was a very, very horrible forest fire season in
01:03:51.540
the Northwest. Yes. Um, we did a show on it. Brutal. And well, you know what? You had a community of
01:03:58.420
Deer Lake, uh, uh, and I say community north of Red Lake, uh, 800 people, four days to evacuate 800
01:04:05.860
people. And they were so terrified that the airport was going to burn down. Yeah. And they did a superhuman
01:04:11.140
effort to, to save the airport. What would have happened if the airport burned down? Yeah. We,
01:04:20.420
we're, we're, you know, and, and God bless the Toronto star for highlighting it, but no one had
01:04:25.220
the wherewithal to think of, well, maybe we should make sure a road is built because when Fort McMurray
01:04:30.900
was being burned, at least everyone, uh, had a highway to drive out of. It was congested,
01:04:37.060
but there was an escape route. Yeah. Uh, and now, and, and right now, uh, the Alberta government is
01:04:44.020
saying, well, we need another route out of, uh, Fort McMurray because it's a lot of people and we
01:04:48.180
need at least two escape routes. Well, there is no escape route for these communities, uh,
01:04:55.060
that are isolated. We need to build. We're, we're not talking in the 401. We're talking about just
01:05:01.140
gravel roads, uh, into these communities. So they do have an escape route. And by building these roads
01:05:08.100
into these communities, you're lowering grocery prices. You're ending the isolation and you're
01:05:13.380
opening up, uh, the development. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're opening up the cities,
01:05:19.380
the areas. No, I'm with you. You know, we did a show on it and, uh, it's funny because I mentioned
01:05:24.500
Blair earlier, uh, down in St. Johnson, he was on Firewatch all summer. Wow. So he was basically looking,
01:05:30.740
oh, you could see the fires coming and he was on Firewatch to move. And he was calling me at one
01:05:35.220
point saying, if I have to get a plane out of here, can I stay at your place for a few weeks?
01:05:40.100
In, in, in 1911, uh, Timmons was just a first, uh, a starting goal camp and a huge horrific floor,
01:05:47.540
uh, forest fire hit. And, and, you know, some people, uh, save themselves by being in, uh, going into
01:05:55.140
the lake because it was by a lake, but still, so the, the death toll was officially with 73 people
01:06:00.580
who burned and, and they expected, and they think it's much higher because there were prospectors
01:06:05.780
and other people in the bush that were unaccounted for. Yeah. And that's what came to mind when I was
01:06:10.260
reading about deer lake. Yeah. I said, does the government need to have fatalities before they're
01:06:16.740
going to ignore the fanatical environmentalists and start getting these roads built? Yeah. Well,
01:06:23.300
you know, it's not in, we found out when we did the, uh, the show, then the amount of resources
01:06:29.300
that we have towards Canadian forest fires is so low. Wow. Like when we dug into the government
01:06:35.220
and said, okay, who's looking at it? How many people are, you know, what's the strategic plan
01:06:39.940
for it? It was, it was unbelievable. It almost reminded us of the COVID team before COVID. It was
01:06:46.580
kind of at that level. And we were like, wow, like how, how can we be smoking out our neighbors and not
01:06:51.860
thinking that we need to get a strategic plan on this one? And then on top of it, with, with global
01:06:56.740
warming happening, you're, the forest fires are going to come more frequently. And so you're going
01:07:01.940
to have to get a handle on it. But, uh, as much as the smoke is a problem for Southern Ontario,
01:07:09.140
this is a life and death issue for the people living in these isolated communities. And you can't,
01:07:15.140
you can't put your head in the sand like an ostrich anymore on this issue. You, you need to
01:07:20.420
both first nations leadership and provincial and federal leadership have to look at these communities
01:07:25.140
and say, look, uh, if we're going to have isolated communities, we need to rebuild roads to them.
01:07:30.180
And, and the benefits long-term, um, uh, on a safety issue, as well as, uh, the ability to develop
01:07:38.180
resources is, is, is we'll, we'll come back in spades for the, the initial outlet of building these roads.
01:07:46.900
Oh, I agree, Stan. And so Stan, thank you very much for today. I got a quite an education and, uh,
01:07:51.780
thank you as a historian, I learned a lot. So you, you taught me a lot about the history of it. I really
01:07:56.740
enjoyed it, especially my, uh, family background in the North. So I, you know, it brought back memories.
01:08:03.460
I'd like to spend some time with you in the next time to talk about the value of each of the
01:08:07.860
minerals and the resources. Um, and then another show, just talk about who's doing it. Cause I
01:08:12.820
think that's the other thing we don't talk about. And I'd like to learn more about that. So thank you
01:08:17.220
for today. I look forward to the next shows. And, uh, for those of you, uh, please, uh, watch, uh,