Ontario’s mineral exploration sector fielded $13 million in provincial funding to discover and define the next generation of mines in Ontario.
Provincial mines minister George Pirie announced the fifth round of funding through the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) in his home riding of Timmins at the headquarters of NPLH Drilling on Nov. 12.
“There’s a lot of exciting projects to talk about, too many to talk about, with incredible potential,” said Pirie, whose announcement was streamed live on Facebook.
Eighty-four projects, 62 of them involved in critical minerals at the early grassroots stage of exploration, will receive a portion of the $13 million.
This the fifth round of OJEP funding since the current government rejigged the former Junior Exploration Assistance Program in 2021.
“There’s no mining without exploration,” said Pirie, a former mining executive, who rattled off the names of recipient companies.
A complete list of recipient companies for this round was not included in the news release and has not yet been posted on the OJEP home page, as of Nov. 12. What’s been posted on the government website only includes the companies involved in the first four intakes.
A mines ministry spokesperson responded: “A full list of recipients will be published when contracting for all 84 projects is complete.”
A handful of junior miners took the opportunity in September to announce their own good fortune in landing program funding.
In his press conference, Pirie pitched that OJEP is part of the Ford’s government’s larger strategy to build a homegrown mines-to-manufacturing plant supply chain that involves making investments and cutting red tape in the mineral sector. OJEP was launched to encourage and stimulate mineral exploration in the province.
“Know that our government has your back and we;ll do our part to help realize the generational opportunity for everyone in the province, especially in the North and indigenous communities.. Our future depends on it.”
Last year, Pirie said, Ontario led all of Canada with $952 million invested in exploration with 200 companies working ground on approximately 400 projects.
Over four years, the mines ministry said it has invested $35 million in OJEP.
The program covers up to 50 per cent of eligible costs and up to a maximum of $200,000 per project. it also provides $10,000 to cover all of the eligible costs, per project, supporting Indigenous employment and business opportunities.
The most successful recipient of the original program was Great Bear Resources’ and its Dixie Gold Project. south of Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
Great Bear applied $100,000 to kick off a drill program that springboarded the gold company to a second phase of exploration that resulted in a high-grade discovery hole. It enabled Great Bear to raise more than $10 million in financing in 2018 to advance the exploration program. Kinross Gold acquired the project in 2022 for $1.8 billion. It has the potential to become one of Canada’s largest gold mines.
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