1.  

A Wealth of Mineral Deposits

Ontario is a global centre for mining as well as Canada's largest producer of most metallic and non-metallic minerals. More than 80% of our mineral products are exported.

The Sudbury Basin contains one of the world's largest deposits of nickel and copper. Ontario's gold mines, most of which are located in Hemlo, Timmins and Red Lake, produce more than $1.8 billion worth of gold annually. Timmins is also the site of the Kidd Creek copper-zinc-silver deposit, one of the largest and richest volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits in the world. The Lac des Iles mine north of Thunder Bay is the only platinum-palladium mine in Canada.

One of the newest and most talked-about exploration zones is the Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario where huge deposits of minerals such as chromite, nickel, copper and platinum have been discovered and are on the verge of being developed.

Ontario is home to mining ventures as diverse as diamond mines in the James Bay lowlands of the far north, to one of the world's largest salt mines under Lake Huron at Goderich in south western Ontario.

Explore the wealth of mineral deposits across Ontario through the maps, data and reports available online at Geology Ontario.

Top Ten Minerals in Ontario
(Production value 2009)

A Global Centre for Mineral Production

A Centre for Canadian Mining
(Ontario's share of Canadian mineral production 2009)

2.

A Sophisticated Mining Industry

Ontario mining companies are known around the world for their efficiency, productivity, innovation, safety and environmental leadership.

They produce almost $6 billion worth or gold, copper, nickel, diamonds and other minerals annually. They employ 16,000 skilled workers directly and another 6,000 in mine services.

Hundreds of Ontario companies supply the industry with everything from contract mining services to custom equipment design. They provide geological, geophysical and geochemical surveying, diamond drilling, environmental studies, mine design and a host of other critical services.

World-Leading Source for Financing

Toronto is the world's largest centre for mine financing. The Toronto Stock Exchange and the Toronto Venture exchanges:

• list 55% of the world's public mining companies
• raised US$22.2 billion in mining equity in 2009 - 34% of the world’s total - including 75 financings valued at more than $50 million
• raised $200 billion (2005-2009) through more than 10,000 equity financings - 82% of all the mine financing deals in the world.

Toronto, as Canada's financial centre, is also the base for a comprehensive range of accounting, legal and advisory services.

Environmental Leadership

Ontario's mining companies adhere to the highest standards of environmental leadership. They spend about $85 million a year on mine land rehabilitation, environmental engineering and environmental technologies.

Exploration to Fuel the Growing Global Economy

Exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures in Ontario reached a record-breaking $825 million in 2010 as mining companies positioned themselves to support the global economic upswing.

Gold continues to be the most sought-after commodity in Ontario. Other commodities include chromite, base metals, platinum group elements and diamonds.

* Estimate

3.

An Exceptional Regulatory and Business Environment

We understand and support mining industry development and growth. That's why we offer:

• clear and fair laws, rules and regulations
• mining tax incentives to reduce financial risk and improve profitability
• research and development tax incentives to encourage innovation.

Secure and Stable Land Tenure

Ontario's mining laws provide stable land tenure throughout the mining process, from acquiring and holding clear title through development and production until eventual mine closure and rehabilitation.

Ontario's Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry (MNDMF) administers the Ontario Mining Act and can provide advice on regulatory and process issues. Mining Information.

Cutting Corporate Taxes

Ontario is dramatically cutting business taxes in a fundamental shift in tax policy covering capital, sales and corporate income taxes.

The marginal effective tax rate on new capital investments (provincial and federal combined) has fallen to 18.6% and will continue to drop, reaching 16.2% by 2018.

An Efficient Business Environment

Ontario's Mining Act was revised in 2009 and one of its goals was to streamline processes.

Across the board, we have streamlined processes to help companies get on with their business as quickly as possible. Business start-ups, for example, require only two simple steps here, compared to as many as 20 needed in other industrialized countries.

We also provide public services that help our companies operate more cost-efficiently and, therefore, be more globally competitive. Our public health care system, for example, reduces employee health care costs for Ontario companies to about half of what they are in the U.S.

And we make it easy to bring together worldwide research and production teams. Work visas for key employees and their families can usually be obtained within days.

4.

Support for Innovation and Research

Ontario's mining industry spends $2.7 billion annually in research, development and exploration.

The Ontario government strongly supports industry research and innovation. Our research and development tax incentive program is one of the most generous in the world.

Ontario is an R&D powerhouse, with world-recognized expertise in fields ranging from wireless communications to robotics to environmental remediation. More industrial and university-based R&D is performed in Ontario than anywhere else in Canada.

Mining Research in the North

We have research organizations that help industry partners solve critical challenges related to mine engineering, satellite image analysis, environmental health and a host of other issues.

• Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization (CAMIRO)
• Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI)
• Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC)
• Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO)
• Natural Resources Canada's Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) and Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT)

Shared Location Creates a Unique University Research Opportunity

Sudbury is one of North America's largest mining camps and Laurentian University sits right at its heart. This proximity creates tremendous opportunities for cutting-edge, practical, mining-related research that runs the gamut from exploration and geology to mining engineering and processes and all the way to environmental remediation at the end of the mine life cycle.

Accelerating Innovation

Ontario is a global hot spot for developing new technologies, processes and systems that can improve working conditions, increase efficiency and lower production costs. Today, a steady stream of R&D-focused initiatives are increasing the pace of innovation.

• In 2010, Rio Tinto launched a partnership with world leading researchers at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) in Sudbury to create the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction which focuses on innovative rapid mine construction and ground control for mining at depth.
  
  
• Also in 2010, the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology in Sudbury joined the Ontario Network of Excellence. It expanded with a 60,000sq/ft innovation and commercialization facility, giving northern entrepreneurs greater access to a broad range of experts, including researchers, academics, business, government and investors.
  
  
• The University of Toronto is building a new $20 million Innovation Centre for the Canadian Mining Industry.
  
  
• The Conference Board of Canada has launched a Centre for the Commercialization of Mining Technologies.

5.

Skilled, Well-Educated Workforce

Ontario's mining industry employs more than 16,000 people directly, supported by an additional 6,000 in mine services.

They're highly productive, and that productivity grows year-by-year. Each employee on average produces $666,000 of mineral output, a 66% increase between 1999 and 2009.

They are highly trained. Currently the accident prevention performance of the industry is the best in the world, with an average lost-time frequency of 0.6 per hundred workers.

Advanced skills for high tech mining

Mining success today depends on advanced technology and that requires highly-educated workers: geo scientists, engineers and computer-savvy technicians as well as heavy-equipment operators.

Colleges and universities across Ontario offer specialized education and training programs from mining technology to geology, engineering, robotics, satellite imaging and international business.

The Federated School of Mines pools the experience and expertise of seven leading institutions in the field of mining education and training across Ontario's North:

• Cambrian College
• Canadore College
• Collège Boréal
• Northern College
• Confederation College
• Contact North/Contact Nord
• Laurentian University
• Northern College/Haileybury School of Mines
• Sault College

The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology in Sudbury has been a leader in occupational health and safety training, mine training, technology innovation and commercialization for more than a decade.

Industry-related education, from advanced post-graduate studies to technical skills such as resource drilling and blasting, is also offered in southern Ontario.

• University of Toronto
• Queen's University
• Sir Sanford Fleming College