True Patriot Love

00:00:00.000 Today on True Patriot Love, Under the Pillar Resources, we're going to meet with Stan Sutil,

00:00:05.800 expert on natural resources and mining. For the last year, we've been hearing how essential it is

00:00:12.600 that we take advantage of our natural resources, our critical minerals. Well, today Stan's going

00:00:19.700 to take us through and tell us where in Canada these resources actually are, and are we really

00:00:27.260 tapping into them? Are we doing the best we can to move forward these advanced projects?

00:00:32.820 Today we'll let you know.

00:00:38.860 Today on True Patriot Love, Under the Pillar Resources, we are lucky enough to have Stan Sutil.

00:00:45.780 Welcome, Stan.

00:00:47.240 Glad to be here.

00:00:48.380 So Stan, you know, a lot of conversations recently about resources, you know, we heard about the

00:00:54.560 tariffs, you know, from the U.S., and then all of a sudden resources became kind of number

00:01:00.020 one on the hit list. The Prime Minister traveling all over the world, trying to find investors

00:01:06.240 in Canada. The Ring of Fire, which we're going to talk about today, became huge issues, and

00:01:12.020 we heard all about it. So resources all of a sudden, and they've always been very prominent

00:01:17.800 in the Canadian economy, have become paramount. And so, you know, I wanted today to talk to

00:01:26.180 you a little bit about across Canada, starting in B.C., what exactly are we mining, and, you

00:01:35.800 know, what is it used for? So, you know, can we start in B.C.? Because, you know, I was surprised

00:01:42.280 when I looked at the numbers that, for example, gold, right? A lot of gold is mined in B.C.

00:01:48.920 Correct.

00:01:49.400 Yeah. And, of course, we all know where gold goes for. We don't refine gold. We just mine

00:01:56.740 it, I assume, right?

00:01:57.840 No, we do refine. I mean, it gets milled, and then we do have the odd refinery with gold.

00:02:04.640 Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So then it gets, so, and gold, quite frankly, is our top mining mineral?

00:02:14.680 Is it, is it close to our time?

00:02:16.520 It varies, just, well, just because it depends on how you value, define it by value now, with

00:02:23.620 close to $4,000 a U.S., and that's almost $5,000 Canadian. It's probably, monetarily-wise,

00:02:32.200 is probably one of the top, if not the top, the second top export item with minerals.

00:02:37.460 Yeah, yeah, no, and I was shocked. So, if I look at B.C., I look at, of course, gold,

00:02:44.340 copper, silver, coal, and zinc. Am I?

00:02:47.700 Yes, absolutely.

00:02:49.040 All right. I'm going to say this wrong. You're going to have to correct me.

00:02:53.480 Molly Pindam? 0.53

00:02:54.680 I just call it Molly.

00:02:56.080 Molly.

00:02:56.620 Okay.

00:02:57.600 I don't say that too often.

00:02:59.260 Yeah.

00:02:59.900 So, it's a tongue twister, for sure.

00:03:01.720 So, copper, we all know, wiring, electronics, plumbing.

00:03:04.840 Absolutely.

00:03:05.540 Yeah.

00:03:05.940 It's the most critical of the critical minerals, if anything, because the whole age of electricity

00:03:10.620 depends on power, and we transmit power by copper. There's more copper in electric vehicles

00:03:20.280 than there is in standard gas vehicles. Everything we do is connected with electricity, and demands

00:03:28.720 for copper are expected to increase by leaps and bounds.

00:03:34.420 Right. Because all the technology.

00:03:36.280 Absolutely.

00:03:36.880 Right. Okay. Gotcha. We talked about gold coal, steel making.

00:03:42.620 Absolutely. Most of the coal coming out of British Columbia, and I believe Alberta, is metallurgical

00:03:47.400 coal. Absolutely essential. Steel is our basic building block.

00:03:52.000 Right.

00:03:52.500 And you get that by digging iron ore to the ground, mixing iron ore with metallurgical

00:03:58.920 coal, and a few other substances in a blast furnace, and you get steel, which is your basic,

00:04:07.540 all the towers that you see in downtown Toronto, condos or businesses, we're not building them

00:04:12.140 under wood.

00:04:12.560 Right.

00:04:13.040 Okay, we need steel.

00:04:14.520 Oh, yeah, for sure.

00:04:14.580 Or any infrastructure, bridges, it's your basic building block. So you need to have,

00:04:19.600 any modern industrial society has to have access to steel, and preferably if you're a G7 country

00:04:26.660 to actually produce steel.

00:04:28.240 Yeah. Which we, you know, today, I think, or last night we heard today is going to be the

00:04:32.620 announcement on how we help our steel industry through this tariff structure, tariff crisis.

00:04:40.040 And it's a complicated issue because there's a lot, unfortunately, I believe that the Canadian 1.00

00:04:47.220 government allows a lot of foreign steel to come in here outside of American. And so that

00:04:52.240 disrupts the market. And then the Americans look at our steel industry and they feel it's

00:05:00.000 somewhat subsidized. And so if you just basically shut out the foreign steel coming from non-USA 0.79

00:05:09.440 sources, you'd probably solve a lot of the issues, but then you're going to get China

00:05:15.040 mad because a lot of steel comes from China.

00:05:16.940 Yeah.

00:05:17.340 And so there's a lot of politics coming into it. But if you really want, as the old saying,

00:05:24.540 regardless of Trump and the tariffs, all right, he will be there for four years. We've basically

00:05:31.720 survived a year. As the tariffs are kicking in, prices in the US are going up and consumers

00:05:39.120 in the US are getting angry. And they're realizing that Canada isn't the problem. I believe tariffs

00:05:46.580 is more of the problem. And so there may be a little bit of softening and there may be a

00:05:51.700 little moving into an equilibrium, especially after the midterms of next year. So we'll see

00:05:58.520 how that goes. But basically we're attached to the Americans. I'm going off topic a little bit.

00:06:06.840 I know Carney is trying to get open new markets, but when 75% of our economy is tied to exporting in

00:06:16.520 the US, there's re and then the number two is like a way down on the list. Yeah. You know,

00:06:22.780 from 75 to maybe 10%. Yeah. That's a tall order. Like he's, I don't even think God could change the,

00:06:31.260 the, the economic reality that we are joined with the Americans at the hip and, you know,

00:06:37.520 we have to deal with it and, and, and muddle our way through.

00:06:40.700 Yeah. We did a great show on steel and the production of steel a couple months back. And

00:06:47.460 it was very interesting, you know, the Chinese steel coming in and the quality and how the

00:06:52.460 quality is much lower than the steel we make here for the minerals and the resources. And I was blown

00:06:57.860 away because I didn't know any of this. Right. Absolutely. And you know what? It's always cheaper

00:07:02.840 from China, whatever we do, it's always going to be cheaper in China. And, and, and, and I have to

00:07:09.740 sort of sort of point out to people, well, you know what, if you really want the cheapest of

00:07:13.940 everything, well, then get rid of the border. I mean, Canada in itself is there's a border,

00:07:18.800 there's, there, there's rules, regulations. Uh, it's more expensive, uh, because we choose to be

00:07:24.440 independent. So we make rules and regulations. And so you can't always go into the cheapest place

00:07:32.220 because if you do, then there will be no jobs for Canadians. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. Silver. Um, 0.60

00:07:39.740 some, uh, similar to gold to a degree, but there's a lot of, um, uh, high tech, uh, usage, especially in,

00:07:48.380 um, um, uh, solar panels and, and, and, and elite, uh, technical applications. Okay. And Molly,

00:07:57.020 uh, a steel additive. Steel additive. You mentioned that earlier. And, and the, what you find is with the

00:08:03.900 open pit copper mines in BC, I almost want to call BC a kingdom of copper because there's so much

00:08:09.840 copper. Right. Um, and the copper is a good quality copper cause there's not, um, um, bad elements like

00:08:17.100 arsenic, which complicates smelter refining. It's a very clean concentrate. I've been told over and over

00:08:24.280 again. Uh, and so in the Southern part of BC, you tend to have copper Molly, uh, as you go further, uh,

00:08:31.780 sometimes you'll have some gold and silver, uh, but, uh, more copper and Molly, uh, as you go into the

00:08:38.560 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,

00:08:48.800 but an older, uh, mining region in Northern BC, um, you have a lot of copper mixed with gold,

00:08:55.780 silver. Yes. So it, you, you're, you're really getting doing double duty and, uh, you're, you're

00:09:02.200 making a good chunk of money because the, the grades of copper are lower. It can be fairly low,

00:09:09.320 but because of the gold and silver, uh, it's economical to mine them to mine it. Yeah. It makes

00:09:14.280 sense. Actually, I was listening this morning. It was a Tucker Carlson show with Chris Olson.

00:09:18.780 And he was talking about gold and silver and how silver, you know, and I always wondered why

00:09:23.100 silver was so, uh, the value was so much lower and it was interesting. So, you know, if you get the

00:09:29.060 chance to check out the show, it was like, Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, Alberta potash.

00:09:35.180 Um, not so much. Well, there, there may be some, uh, but if you're really looking at the next, uh,

00:09:42.260 you you'll see some metallurgical coal in Alberta, but the next big mining province is really Saskatchewan.

00:09:48.340 Right. Which is basically, um, potash in the middle. Yeah. We are one of the

00:09:53.140 world's major potash producers. Uh, BHB has spent billions, um, investing in a, a new potash mine.

00:10:02.660 Uh, but there's, uh, a legacy of older potash mines that have been contributing to the Saskatchewan economy.

00:10:08.580 Okay. Uh, and literally if you take potash away, you'd probably see without that, which has turned

00:10:17.240 into fertilizer. Yeah. Without that, you probably see a quarter die off in global population because

00:10:23.200 we're so, it's such an essential part of ensuring that crop yields stay high. So, and some fertilizer,

00:10:30.980 it's mixed with, um, natural gas or oil derivatives. Yeah. So again, when people say, well, stop oil,

00:10:37.840 stop producing oil. Well, no, we can't because oil isn't just used for gasoline and heating. Yeah.

00:10:45.880 It's used in fertilizer. It's used in pharmaceutical. Uh, it's used in such a wide variety of, um,

00:10:54.780 uh, consumer products that we were all, we will always need to produce oil for some plastics.

00:11:00.480 We will always need to produce oil on some level because of the materials that we get out of the

00:11:06.380 oil and, and natural gas, uh, production. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I'm, I'm an accountant

00:11:11.340 by trade. Okay. And years ago I had a client was Monsanto Canada. Okay. Yeah. So I didn't know any

00:11:16.960 of this to tell you the truth until I started doing some work with them. It was one of my clients years

00:11:21.060 ago and, uh, yeah, it was really a great education for me to learn how, you know, potash and how it

00:11:27.200 all worked, which, uh, and oil and gas and yeah, most Canadians don't know that. Right. And they don't

00:11:33.080 know how actually pivotal or, uh, essential we are for production in the world. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

00:11:40.340 Unfortunately, our media is concentrated in the, uh, Montreal, Montreal, Toronto, Montreal, access,

00:11:47.540 hacks, uh, the corridor. Yeah. And here we, we even going 400 kilometers north of Toronto to a mining

00:11:56.980 town is, is, is, is not very odd. People don't often do that. So they're, they're, they're very

00:12:02.260 disconnected from the mining cycle. So back to Saskatchewan, you've got the middle, the mid

00:12:07.460 section where you have all the potash, uh, the north and the Athabasca, Athabasca basin is your uranium,

00:12:15.060 uh, hotspot and no pun intended. It's, it's Cameco is one of the major companies. Uh, the French 1.00

00:12:22.020 major uranium facility has been up there for decades. Um, uh, uh, number two producer globally.

00:12:28.660 Yes. Uh, we've heard that for uranium. Um, as more projects come on stream, uh, it, it may Kazakhstan,

00:12:37.460 I believe is number one. It may, it will, it may, it'll be a, a real battle who stays, uh, who,

00:12:43.540 if Kazakhstan stays in the number one position or Saskatchewan overtakes them. But, uh,

00:12:48.260 right again, and as nuclear becomes more important with all this drive for technology and AI and tech

00:12:55.780 plants and data centers. Oh, absolutely. And it's carbon free. Uh, we, we don't have carbon

00:13:01.940 emissions with nuclear. Um, it's the rate way to go for base load power, right? Like I, I, I'm not

00:13:09.540 against wind or solar, but what the environmentalists don't tell the total truth is that they're

00:13:18.340 intermittent. What do you do when the wind stops blowing? What do you do when the sun stops shining?

00:13:22.580 You need base load. How do you get base load? Well, it's on one hand, you're basically coal,

00:13:29.860 coal, uh, natural gas, coal fired, natural gas, nuclear, um, hydroelectric. Um, that's it.

00:13:40.260 The, the, the, the, the, for, for, for a huge amount of, uh, base load, reliable power,

00:13:46.740 we need it because basically GM or, or

00:13:52.580 DHP Billiton can't stop mining or GM can't stop, uh, producing cars when the wind stops blowing or the

00:13:59.060 sun stops shining. Yeah, no, no, that makes sense. So, uh, rare earth minerals, are they in,

00:14:06.660 so now help me out, Saskatchewan, there is a small, yes, there's a refinery, I believe.

00:14:12.820 Okay. We don't have a lot of rare earth minerals in Canada, right? Not compared to China, compared to 0.99

00:14:19.780 Australia, we're kind of in the low end of that category. Yes. Yeah. You know, the rare earth,

00:14:24.980 it's, it's, it's actually a very tiny when you come, the, the biggest reason, the biggest mineral

00:14:33.700 that we need to mine is iron ore because we make steel out of iron ore. Right. Okay. The number two

00:14:39.860 is bauxite, which we make aluminum. Yes. Then it's, which we are the leader, right?

00:14:45.540 Uh, in aluminum refining. Refining. Okay. Okay. Cause we don't have bauxite, uh, mines

00:14:51.780 in Canada. What ends up happening is most of the mines are in the tropical area. Right. But the trick

00:14:57.940 with aluminum is you want cheap power. Uh, so Quebec has historically said, okay, because of all the

00:15:06.180 hydroelectric facilities in Quebec, we will give you very, very cheap power if you locate your smelter or

00:15:13.220 refinery. Okay. Here in Quebec. Right. Okay. And so I believe there's nine smelters in Quebec,

00:15:21.460 nine aluminum smelters, one aluminum refinery. Yeah. And then the other one is in Kitimat,

00:15:27.620 BC, which is an aluminum smelter. And that's all based on cheap power rates or they have control

00:15:35.220 over the, the, the river, uh, power production or the dam. Right. And that's where the US has struggled

00:15:41.220 a little bit because they haven't been able, uh, aluminum is not their forte because of power rates

00:15:47.540 and the fact then the nuclear and uranium and getting all that into play. It, you, they used to,

00:15:53.620 I think Washington state was one of the major, uh, aluminum smelting regions of the U S historically.

00:16:02.820 Yep. But as power rates started going up, uh, a lot of these aluminum facilities in the U S have closed.

00:16:09.940 Yes. They have some, uh, and, and forgive me with the statistics, the U S sort of needs about

00:16:17.220 3.5 million or somewhere in that range of, uh, aluminum every year they produce about

00:16:26.340 10% or 12%. That's what I had heard. The rest comes from the Saguenay in Quebec. Yes. Or Kitimat.

00:16:34.580 Right. And, and, and a lot of the aluminum smelters are in the Saguenay region of Quebec.

00:16:39.380 Hmm. And they, they sometimes call it the kingdom of the Saguenay because it's,

00:16:43.140 it's been historically, uh, for almost a hundred years, uh, since they started, uh, building aluminum

00:16:52.260 smelters and, and, and transferring, converting bauxite into aluminum. Uh, you've had aluminum

00:16:58.420 smelting going on in Quebec. Oh, okay. That long. Oh yes. Wow. During world war two. Yes.

00:17:05.380 And those pesky Quebecers decided to go on strike in the Saguenay and the allies were in an uproar 0.77

00:17:12.100 because it was absolutely critical for the world war two, the, the, the military, uh, plane production.

00:17:19.300 And they were just livid because they, it was like almost a, a, a national crisis and they finally

00:17:25.940 resolved it, but it was a real scary time because, uh, war production and they were absolutely dependent

00:17:34.260 on the aluminum facilities in Quebec because Kitimat, I don't believe had been built yet.

00:17:39.460 Oh, okay. Oh, that's good history. Yeah. So, um, so we've got Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan. I had salt

00:17:47.220 here, which was interesting, but that's, we talked about that another time. And then, uh, Manitoba.

00:17:52.420 Okay. They're just one final thing with Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan's kind of really interesting

00:17:56.420 because people, it's under value to a lot of people in the middle of Saskatchewan, there's some

00:18:01.060 Canadian shield and some, there's some copper deposits. One of the, one of the copper mines that

00:18:06.020 Kearney had, uh, given the green light for, uh, uh, was in, uh, uh, in the middle of Saskatchewan.

00:18:12.500 So you go over to, uh, Foran. Yeah. Yeah. And the town was, uh, it was a project that sat on hold for.

00:18:21.700 Well, they were in the process of developing it. Like, I mean, my understanding is it's,

00:18:26.020 they really didn't need Kearney's blessing because they've already, it was, it's such a good copper

00:18:30.900 deposit. Yeah. It's already in, uh, not in production, but it was the, the, they're building

00:18:35.780 it and, and it will come on stream fairly soon if. Okay. Yeah. Cause we have a map, you know,

00:18:43.060 that we were going through before the show and we'll throw it up on the screen, but it shows, uh,

00:18:47.700 all the mines that exist. It shows the refineries that exist and what the government calls on their

00:18:53.300 website, advanced projects. Ah, okay. So I assume that was like one of those advanced projects,

00:18:58.100 right? Absolutely. Okay. All right. So before we go to Manitoba, just one more thing. Um,

00:19:01.860 tech has the, uh, trail BC, uh, zinc lead smelter and that's been in existence for since the early 1909,

00:19:11.700 1910. So there they process the, there was zinc mines in BC, but they have closed down, but tech has a

00:19:22.660 huge, uh, zinc lead mine in Alaska. Okay. And they shipped that concentrate down to the smelter

00:19:30.740 where they refined it into zinc and lead products in Saskatchewan. Uh, no, in BC and trail BC. Okay.

00:19:37.860 And is that part of the, this controversy that's kind of ongoing? We're going to be reading the paper

00:19:42.260 all the time. The Anglo sorta. Yeah. Well, it is because that's part of the tech. Yeah. And of course, 0.84

00:19:48.260 Anglo is trying to take over or wants to take over tech. Yeah. And, and I guess I'll just, since I'm,

00:19:53.940 we're, we're on that topic, um, the federal government is basically saying, uh, you need to

00:19:58.980 do more. Right. Uh, if we're going to allow you to take over our last base metal, uh, large base metal,

00:20:06.100 uh, mining, uh, company. And what no one is really talking about is, uh, in BC, um, which is 50% of

00:20:15.140 Canada's copper production, the, all the concentrate gets shipped over to Asian markets to be smelted

00:20:21.620 and refined. A good chunk of it is China. Yeah. So security supply is such a number one priority

00:20:30.900 for governments today in North America. Yet we're shipping us, uh, almost half of, of BC copper

00:20:39.300 concentrate to China as well as to Japan and South Korea. Yes. And I'm advocating that if Anglo wants 1.00

00:20:47.060 to take over tech, that they have to build a, uh, smelter refining complex in BC. And if not,

00:20:56.180 go away. That's that to me. Uh, I'm very nationalistic on that. That is your key to entry.

00:21:02.340 If you really want to tell me you're committed to this country and yes, it's expensive and yes,

00:21:07.780 it's cheaper to get it done in China or, or, or Japan or, or South Korea. But, uh, if you want

00:21:14.660 to take over the premier, uh, the number one, uh, critical minerals company in Canada, which is

00:21:21.140 tech, then I believe you need to build a smelter refinery complex preferably and on the coast somewhere

00:21:29.700 in Prince Rupert or Kitimat or somewhere there. Oh, okay. Good. I'll ruffle some feathers. I'm sure.

00:21:34.900 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. I love it. Uh, Manitoba now, uh, Manitoba historically, um,

00:21:43.060 has been the Thompson nickel belt, uh, and, um, Thompson, the, the town. Yeah. Uh, Inco,

00:21:50.340 the old Inco found the, the, uh, the Thompson nickel deposit, I guess in the 1950s. And it took them,

00:22:00.020 I believe the late fifties, early sixties, it took them about six years to build the mine,

00:22:08.100 build the concentrator, build a smelter refinery complex, a railway spur in the town. Okay.

00:22:15.780 It was because there was such a shortage of nickel at the time because prime at, in the fifties,

00:22:23.540 the majority of nickel was coming out of the Sudbury base. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And so they were

00:22:29.220 really desperate to get an alternative supply going. And of course you had the cold war military

00:22:36.740 buildup. Nickel is absolutely critical for everything to do with war because stainless steel

00:22:43.220 and batteries and well batteries now, but back then it was stainless steel and nickel hardened steel.

00:22:49.940 Right. Right. Okay. For like all the equipment we got, I'll get, I'll, I'll expand on that when we

00:22:54.660 get to Sudbury. Okay. Okay. But, uh, so they, when they built Thompson, it was the largest private

00:23:03.060 sector investment in Manitoba history at that time, because it was such a massive complex and they did

00:23:08.740 it in record time. Oh, and it was quite amazing. Cool. Um, zinc. So it, in Manitoba.

00:23:19.380 Yeah. You know what? I, I've just gotten a little bit of a, I can't remember. Well,

00:23:24.660 that's all right. Okay. So zinc, but zinc is used for galvanizing. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

00:23:30.820 I didn't, you know, resistant and yeah, exactly. I was trying to think what zinc was used for. And

00:23:35.620 then all of a sudden it kind of this morning, I was going through it. Um, lithium, which is growing,

00:23:40.660 it's starting. Yes. Lithium was nor it was now it's becoming, um, was the topic of the, the year,

00:23:49.620 I guess, or the two years. Um, there is a small lithium mine in Manitoba. Uh, but now you,

00:23:56.580 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,

00:24:12.740 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

00:24:31.540 to be taken seriously by the big boys and you're going to be talking about a refinery,

00:24:37.220 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

00:24:55.380 stuff, you, you need to basically look at, you know, um, like I say, 40, 50, 60 million tons,

00:25:03.060 then we're talking, then, then we're looking at some legitimacy there. Okay. Uh, I'm not saying

00:25:08.020 that these small ones can't find enough to get to that threshold, but until they get to that threshold,

00:25:13.860 um, they have to do a lot more drilling to, uh, shore up the deposits that they do have.

00:25:19.220 Oh, okay. And there's gold in Manitoba too? And I'm trying to think.

00:25:23.060 Yes. I've heard, yes. In the south. Yes.

00:25:26.340 There's the, the section of Manitoba that is an extension of the Canadian Shield in north or western

00:25:31.220 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,

00:25:47.460 gold is generally what you have is a gold deposit and then within a circle of a hundred, maybe 200

00:25:57.620 miles, uh, or kilometers, you have a mill. Right. Or it could be beside, depends on, uh,

00:26:04.180 uh, it, it, it's all fluid because gold mines come and go. Yes. Once the mill is there, well,

00:26:10.100 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,

00:26:25.700 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 0.96

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. 1.00

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 0.99

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 0.99

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. 0.56

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 0.99

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. 0.98

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, 1.00

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. 0.83

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 0.66

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,

01:08:23.860 and, uh, we look forward to seeing you soon.

Canada’s Hidden Resource Power Map Explained

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