The Future of Mining Insights from PDAC 2024

今年3月，来自全球各地的矿业专业人士聚集在多伦多大都会会议中心(MTCC), 超过26个,000 people attended the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada's (PDAC) 2024 Convention.

这次大会为金属和矿产行业的未来提供了有趣的见解, 包括世界银行的《韦德娱乐》报告，由采矿业负责人迈克尔·斯坦利发表, who has more than 40 years of experience in the 矿业 sector. 史丹利向与会者提供的见解主要集中在2035年和2050年.

He discussed major disruptions to the sector, including the world's quickly growing population, 预计将在未来25年内突破100亿大关, and the trend towards higher urbanization rates.

“随着城市的建设, 在早年, they have fantastic consumption of metals and minerals,斯坦利说.

With record numbers of cities reaching the 10-million, 15-million and 20-million population marks, 对基础设施日益增长的需求将推高对采矿和能源部门的需求.

"The key to growth and economic opportunity starts with energy. Energy is the kingpin that ensures that we move forward as a society. It allows us to improve our places of work, our housing, and our hospitals. It allows for better delivery of education. It all starts with energy. 而且, in the urban environment, 允许政府提供健康教育和照顾儿童和老人,斯坦利说.

斯坦利还讨论了能源转型，这是采矿业的另一个主要颠覆因素. 随着各国寻求用更高效的选择取代老化的电力基础设施, demand for certain metals and minerals, 比如铜, 将会上涨.

铜需求:

Expected to increase by 2.3 times over the next 25 years
Major demand is expected to occur in approximately 11 years
Average industry time from discovery to production: 14.9年

"We are already inside a fantastic transition, and the demand for metals is starting to climb," Stanley told the crowd.

矿业部门目前在增加极受欢迎的金属和矿物的生产方面遇到的另一个重大挑战是缺乏获得资本的机会.

他说:“要把资金转移到很多矿业项目中是非常困难的. 我想说，原因是人们对风险有了一种以前不存在的认识,斯坦利说, 补充说，与充足性和安全性相关的需求侧风险现在是一个重要因素.

At the PDAC 2022 Convention, the U.S. 和加拿大签署了一项关于关键矿物的联合行动计划，其目标和政策措施旨在改善矿物来源地的供应, 斯坦利解释.

"It's to ensure that the mineral production supports economic growth, competitiveness and job creation. It promotes climate action and environmental protection, advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, fostering diverse and inclusive workforces, and ensuring global security partnerships. Metals have become a very strategic, important asset for national governments on the demand side as we advance,斯坦利说.

He added that for the joint action plan to be successful, there are a couple of caveats to this program.

"The first is that for these to work, 你必须有一个公平的竞争环境，让所有的矿产生产商都遵守同样的规则，无一例外地遵守. Two, governments must remain committed to this and can't have reversals. They can't have step-outs or exceptions for certain places. 第三, 世界银行和其他发展伙伴有责任与供应来源的政府合作, to ensure we have good governance, and we meet those objectives as was laid out by Canadian policy,斯坦利说.

Building trust in communities

PDAC 2024上另一个出席人数众多的会议是“勘探与运营:关键矿产的可持续价值链”,，这是一场小组讨论，重点讨论了在原住民社区创造能力和在整个价值链中实施绿色能源转型的想法.

小组讨论:

Chair Kirsty Liddicoat, COO of Northern Graphite (拉伐尔, 什么.);
Geneviève Morinville, Winsome 资源 (Val-d'Or)可持续发展和监管事务副总裁, 什么.);
瓦莱丽塔戈特, Pikwakanagan第一民族阿尔冈昆人项目协调员(Pikwakanagan, 安大略省的.);
Blair Way, CEO of Patriot Battery Metals (Brisbane, Australia); and
Stephen Crozier, Wyloo Ring of Fire Metals(多伦多，安大略省)可持续发展副总裁.).

Crozier discussed some impediments to building robust, 与政府和社区建立信任关系，一旦地质条件确定，就可以按照各方都能接受的条件进行开发.

"The Ring of Fire has been talked about for a long time. Amongst many important themes, 我认为，在我们如何定义前进道路的早期分析中，一个引人注目的主导因素是信任. It's about the lack of trust,他说.

Based on his experience working in the industry over the past 15 years, 牧杖说, speaking in broad strokes, the sector has challenges regarding how it handles information.

"We tend to handle information in a highly compartmented fashion. Information does not freely flow between relevant functions internally. It doesn't freely flow externally. And that creates some significant issues in terms of governance, 在确保相关的专门知识能够解决需要专门知识的问题方面, and it impairs building trusting relationships,他说.

Morinville said that when it comes to mineral development today, 该行业需要有非常高的环境绩效和与土著关系的绩效, government relations, and the general public.

“我们与魁北克的当地团队坐在一起，思考作为一家公司，我们想要找到的关键价值观是什么，因为我们是将要在实地开展工作的人, and it also means that we're building up our company locally, 我们希望确保我们引进的人都有共同的价值观,她说.

因为勘探矿产生产的公司关心他们对环境和社区的影响, 这些项目应被视为与原住民领土和周边社区合作的机会，以确保适当的影响评估和社区参与得到彻底执行. 塔格特就如何与第一民族社区进行有意义的接触提出了建议.

“皮夸卡纳根的阿尔冈昆人相信，第一民族越早意识到并参与到一个项目中来, even as early as the conception phase, the better for all parties. The more transparent the planning and development phases, 第一民族越多地参与各种研究，以实际和切实的方式帮助项目取得成果, the better the overall outcome of a project,她说.

塔格特补充说，支持者需要开始以不同的方式看待第一民族的参与:

Once a site is known to be viable, even before Western science experts get involved, outreach should happen to all potentially affected First Nation communities.
然后，第一民族可以支持进行基于项目的土地使用研究.

“这项研究的结果将清楚地表明，矿山可能对使用土地和植物的人产生影响, 土地, waters and animals within or in proximity to a potential mine site,塔格特解释道.

底线是:

虽然人们认为加拿大矿业部门的未来增长存在许多障碍, 在支持工业和周边社区更繁荣的未来的同时，有很多机会可以更可持续地运营. The companies planning ahead to obtain access to capital, meet current and future regulatory requirements, 并与土著社区建立牢固的关系，将为光明的未来做好准备.