SASKATOON — Mineral exploration in the province is expected to increase as corporate leaders, stakeholders, and various companies in the mining industry attended the three-day 2024 Saskatchewan Geological Open House. More than 1,000 people participated in the event, held from Monday to Wednesday, Dec. 2 to 4, at the Delta Bessborough Hotel.
The open house was spread out into the convention and mezzanine levels of the hotel, where companies involved in mineral exploration and offering support services, like catering services and transportation, had booths where they displayed different equipment used for mining and what they provide to possible clients.
Athabasca Catering and Big Ice Services are some of the service providers that have booths during the three-day conference, with the former providing food to workers who are at job sites in the northern regions of Saskatchewan. Big Ice, a Creighton-based company near the Manitoba border, offers structural ice projects like ice construction and winter ice roads.
The Saskatchewan Geological Survey, an agency under the Ministry of Energy and Resources, collects data and compiles mineral exploration and extraction reports. The University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan students also had research projects on the potential of minerals for uranium in the Athabasca basin.
Various speakers also discussed multiple topics during the technical sessions, including the province’s growing uranium and potash industries, geoscience and exploration projects, why the Athabasca basin has a large uranium deposit, innovative approaches to exploration, and the polymetallic minerals system.
The open house is an opportunity for Saskatchewan to attract more global investment in critical minerals exploration, and the available research is why exploration companies choose to invest in the province. The event is jointly organized by the Ministry of Energy and Resources’ Saskatchewan Geological Survey and the Saskatchewan Geological Society.
"The high-quality, public geological data available in Saskatchewan has set the stage for a dramatic increase in uranium exploration, as well as for other emerging critical minerals such as lithium, helium, copper, zinc and nickel," said Energy and Resources Minister Colleen Young in a statement.
This year, an estimated $410 million is expected for the province’s exploration sector, which is 15 per cent higher than last year and up 40 per cent in 2022. Uranium is the primary reason for that increase, with exploration investments reaching $200M against $150M in 2022, showing Saskatchewan’s competitive regulatory taxation environment from exploration to production.
Close to 300 mining executives have rated Saskatchewan as the number one in Canada and ranked third in the world for investment based on the Fraser Institute’s 2023 mining survey. This is the ninth year in the last decade that the province has been ranked in the top three globally, which the provincial government see as a huge opportunity.
"The exploration story for 2024 is uranium development in the Athabasca region, which is home to the highest-grade uranium deposits in the world. Saskatchewan uranium is foundational to the global nuclear renaissance, with countries worldwide turning to nuclear as a key part of their low-emissions power generation plans. In a volatile world—politically and economically—investors are seeking stability. Saskatchewan offers this, along with an abundance of critical minerals vital to national security, global food production and dependable energy supply chains," said Young.
The provincial government introduced the Saskatchewan Critical Mineral Strategy in 2023, a seven-year plan to support opportunities for growth in the mining sector and would also expand some incentive programs promoting mineral exploration that offers a 25 per cent grant for hard-rock mineral exploration drilling costs anywhere in the province. The tax credit for Saskatchewan residents is 30 per cent for eligible flow-through share purchases.
