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The History of the Mining industry in Québec

The mining industry in Québec has had a long and fascinating development history that goes back to the mid 19^th century. Many important mining discoveries have improved access to remote areas, enabling the development of these regions and securing economic prosperity.

Number of exploited comodities in the province of Quebec between 1950-2000 (click to enlarge)

The ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune du Québec (MRNF) uses the 2007-2008 survey of the Fraser Institute that ranks the province in second place for its mineral potential "attractiveness", among the 68 evaluated mining jurisdictions. However, the number of mine openings have been in decline since the early 90s and mineral production in Québec is much lower than 30 years ago. To reverse this trend, many mining companies have oriented their exploration toward non-traditional subtances and/or new environments. Thus there is a need for data to build models for these types of deposits and environments that are often very different from those that have been explored, and exploited so far.

Click here to see the main resources currently being exploited in Québec.

Québec has been, and is still recognized as, a world leader in metal production. The province wishes to continue to support regional economies while remaining competitive in terms of mineral production; the Québec mining industry has an urgent need for new technology and new exploration models.

DIVEX - Phase 1

Considering the context of the mining industry and mineral exploration, and anticipating the needs for fundamental and applied research, some thirty geoscientists from academia and governments met in April 2002 to form the DIVEX network (Diversification in Mineral Exploration in Quebec). This new scientific research network, a first in Quebec, was funded by Valorisation-Recherche Québec (VRQ), that was then a division of the Ministère de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie du Québec (2002-2005).

Four main themes were at the heart of the first phase of DIVEX: the object of two themes was to determine the potential of Québec for the discovery of diamonds and platinum group elements while the other two themes focused on Québec non-traditional geological environments: sedimentary environments and metamorphic terranes. In 2005, new themes were added, targeting the development of new geological models and the development of innovative tools to support mineral exploration. Twenty projects were undertaken in phase 1 of DIVEX (2002-2006).

DIVEX - Phase 2

Following the initial funding of DIVEX the ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE) provided financial support for an additional year, from 2006-2007. Finally in 2007, the long-term funding of DIVEX was provided by the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT) for an additional three years, 2007 to 2010.

Objectives

During the four years of Phase 2 (2006-2010), the main objectives of DIVEX were:

to coordinate the efforts of scientific research and to concentrate them on the latest and most promising avenues in mineral exploration;
to promote the direct transfer of research results to the public and representatives of the mining industry.

With the global objective of promoting the discovery of new deposits and to obtain economic benefits for Québec.

Collaboration

DIVEX currently benefits from the participation of almost all Earth Sciences research institutions in Quebec, as well as from the support of many organizations and companies in the mining industry. DIVEX is also heavily involved in promoting events such as conferences.

Participating institutions

Research themes and projects

Four major research themes are explored in the seconde phase of DIVEX.

Non-traditional geological environments
Non-exploited mineral substances in Québec
New geological and metallogenic models
Development of new tools for mineral exploration

Since 2006, the seconde phase of DIVEX has 15 projects in the four major research themes of the network.

Results

One of the main objectives of DIVEX is a public dissemination of research results via the internet, conferences, scientific journals and student publications. Also, publications specifically targeting the geoscientific community and the industry are available in the form of annual technical reports for each project (also filed as GM at the MRNF) and an annual report that reports the activities of the network.

For more information, or to be included in our mailing list, please contact us at info@divex.ca.