Mining

British Columbia, Canada is one of the richest mineral regions in the world – come explore our wealth of opportunities!

Industry Snapshot

Mining in British Columbia is thriving thanks to our abundant minerals, innovative business practices and public sector investments. British Columbia’s mountains are a rich source of numerous minerals exported to markets around the world.

• British Columbia is Canada’s largest producer of copper, its only producer of molybdenum, and a supplier of choice for industrial minerals and rare earths.
• We are Canada’s largest exporter of coal. The value of B.C. coal exports in 2010 was $5.1 billion, 86 percent of Canada’s $6 billion coal industry.
• More than 1,000 exploration and active mining sites operate around the province with over 50 metal, coal and industrial mineral mines in production.
• We are a highly desirable location for mineral investment, and mineral exploration spending in 2010 was $322 million, more than double that of 2009.
• Mining contributes $7.4 billion to the economy annually.
• More than half of Canadian exploration and mining companies are based in British Columbia, the world’s largest concentration of exploration companies and mining professionals. There are more than 28,000 people employed in our mining sector.

We have new mines opening and mines that are expanding as we forge a future of jobs, opportunities and sustainability second to none.

Competitive Advantages

B.C. offers an ideal business environment with competitive taxes, a robust venture capital market and a culture of innovation.

• Vancouver is the base of operations for more than 800 global mining and mineral firms, including two of the world’s largest mining companies.
• British Columbia is home to some of the lowest operating costs and progressive tax rates in North America, and reductions in B.C.’s corporate tax rate mean it will be 25 per cent by 2012 – among the lowest of the G7 countries.
• B.C. is ranked among the best in the world for the quality of our geological databases with a growing inventory of more than 12,000 mineral occurrences.
• Low-cost electricity and natural gas provide plentiful and cost-effective mining infrastructure supports.
• British Columbia- based companies have raised billions of dollars in equity capital on the TSX and TSX Venture Exchanges.
• Our strategically located ports on the Pacific Ocean, with rail access and extensive road networks, provide a highly efficient supply chain.
• We have built a skilled mining workforce over the past 150 years. British Columbia is internationally recognized as a centre of excellence in mining and related fields, such as metallurgy, environmental engineering, mine safety and the geosciences.

Incentives

The B.C. government offers the following tax incentive programs to the mining industry.

• Refundable 20 per cent tax credit for grassroots exploration of qualified resources.
• Exploration in areas affected by the Mountain Pine Beetle earn a provincial tax credit of 30 per cent.
• Non-refundable 20 per cent tax credit for individuals investing in flow-through shares that finance qualifying grassroots exploration.
• The Canadian government provides a 15 per cent complement to the non-refundable flow-through tax credit.
• The British Columbia and federal non-refundable tax credits, when added to the regular 100 per cent deductions are equivalent to a 141 per cent exploration expense deduction for income tax purposes.

The Harmonized Sales Tax will also save the mining industry about $55 million annually and industry has identified additional millions in savings for new mine development and construction.