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Canada to unveil mining plan, eyeing domination in sustainability

Canada aims to become the "undisputed leader in sustainable mineral resource development" and will outline part of a strategy to do so in a report the government plans to release March 6, Kim Rudd, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of natural resources, said at the opening ceremonies of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto. The report is called the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan.

Rudd was reticent to give details about the content of the report, but stressed the critical importance metals play in a greener economy. Several times she described metals as vital to developing a low-carbon economy, a key policy of the Trudeau government.

But the practical impact of the document is unclear at this point. Rudd declined to say if the report would have firm policy initiatives, such as plans for legislation, in follow-up questions from S&P Global Market Intelligence on the sidelines of PDAC.

"I don't want to predispose the outcomes of this," Rudd said. "I think what's going to happen is that the document is going to become a living document that the industry and government will take it and figure out how to operationalize and chart a path forward." In producing the report, the Canadian government began consultations with provincial counterparts in mid-2016.

In answer to a question about whether the government wants to see more mining in Canada, Rudd was noncommittal. "We know we cannot have a green economy, we cannot have a low-carbon future without those metals and minerals," she said. "But it's the economy and the environment going hand in hand. We have to make sure we're doing it in a sustainable way."

She and an aide said the report would be unveiled by Natural Resources Minister James Carr on March 6.

The mining plan comes as the Canadian government moves to overhaul the country's environmental permitting process with new legislation. Experts say the implications of the legislation on the resource sector are hard to gauge while some resource CEOs have expressed fears that Canada will scare away investment with the proposed process.