Mining Boom in Quebec: Alain-Jean Beauregard
The Gold Report: The province of Quebec where Geologica is based offers some of the best infrastructure and mineral exploration incentives of any state or province in North America. Why has Quebec embraced mining when so many other jurisdictions are working hard to prevent mining or mineral exploration at all?
Alain-Jean Beauregard: Like forestry, mining has traditionally been a region developer in the province of Quebec. Native land issues have already been settled for large parts of the province. Mining is an important job creator—one of the most important in the province. It’s good income for the province because of revenues from taxes. Quebec is happy to have mining companies in the province. The highest salaries are now in mining. Mining regions have the lowest unemployment in the province and a lot of young graduates are back from the larger cities to their families, to the great satisfaction of their parents. Also, a large world-class, web-accessible Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources geoscientific database, SIGEOM, has been in place for several years.