The Ontario Prospectors and Explorers Symposium is underway in Thunder Bay, where miners, prospectors, support and supply companies, laboratories and service companies have come together to network and share information and ideas.
Daniele Spethman, an exploration geologist and director of the Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA), is the co-ordinator of the conference that was hosted jointly by the OPA and the Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association.
The conference is a great opportunity to bring everybody who’s working in the area together and geologically, share ideas about their project and what’s happening on their on their mine sites, what their future looks like and what the geological setting is like,” Spethman said. “In addition, we have more than 40 exhibitors from companies that support the industry with procurement and research.”
She said Northwestern Ontario is very much on the map with its growing mining industry and called Thunder Bay and the region a “fantastic place to live and work.”
“You guys are very fortunate in that you just put (Equinox’s) Greenstone Gold Mine into production. You moved a highway. You’ve got the Great Bear Project that’s going into production with Kinross. You’ve got West Red Lake that’s operating in Red Lake and you’ve got the Ring of Fire, which is going to be the next 50 to 100 years of stories and discoveries in Canada. It’s going to be phenomenal,” Spethman said.
“The Northwest is booming.”
Exhibitor Doug Parker, who was promoting the Ontario Prospectors Association program called Discover Prospecting, said Thunder Bay is beyond a mining hub.
“Thunder Bay used to be a hub, but now it’s becoming a mining centre. It really is,” Parker said. “We have a lot of mines close to town that are hopefully going to be opening up in the short term, and we have a lot of services based in Thunder Bay. There’s three and maybe four lithium refineries looking at being established here, so Thunder Bay is really becoming a mining centre.”
The conference hosted more than 300 registrants with a focus on students and First Nations people coming to listen to more than 30 speakers and presenters.
Even the parking lot was buzzing with Wiskair Helicopters, which is offering helicopter rides to conference participants for a donation to Our Kids Count. The event continues today at the Valhalla Inn from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
