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The Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA) wants to lift the veil of what the grassroots side of the mining sector is doing to feed the modern materials supply chain.
In heralding in a “new era”, the OPA is looking to “rejuvenate and re-energize” the almost 40-year-old organization with new leadership, a more regimented governance structure, and a higher public profile.
“We’re trying to change the image” of the OPA, said Bill MacRae, its president and interim executive director, of the often perceived secretive nature of an industry, populated by solitary figures slogging through the bush and scouring the terrain in looking for the next great mineral prospect.
The OPA, he said, needs to become more visible to educate the public on what prospectors and exploration companies actually do at the earliest stages of the mining cycle and what it means to society at large.
“It’s everywhere (in Ontario). Only the people who work in the industry have any clue what prospecting to mining really is.”
The overall message will be simple: no prospecting, no mines.
The OPA is reminding all that value of minerals produced in Ontario in 2022 was $13.5 billion, 22 per cent of the country’s total mineral production. With 22 per cent of Canada’s total production exported.
Some influential members felt the OPA needed to become a more effective lobby organization that takes a more hands-on approach in how provincial legislation is drafted.
For MacRae, an overhaul of the group was overdue.
“To me, the organization was irrelevant. It didn’t matter anymore.”
MacRae took the helm of the OPA in June, replacing long-time executive director Garry Clark who resigned in 2023 but remains aboard as a director.
An earlier restructuring effort, started a few years ago, had gone nowhere.
Undeterred, MacRae said he canvassed his colleagues in Northern and southern Ontario, building consensus to make another attempt that’s been a year in the making.
MacRae contends there have been internal communication issues and that membership has been steadily eroding, which he ballparks at roughly 400 members, most of them based in northwestern Ontario. At its peak, there were 900 members.
MacRae, a Timmins-based independent geologist of more than 45 years, was there from the beginning, as one of OPA’s original stakeholders who called the first meeting in 1988.
The non-profit was first known as the Ontario Mineral Exploration Federation, established to provide input in the drafting of Ontario’s Mining Act in 1989. It evolved into an industry lobby group, advocating for those at the grassroots level of the mining industry.
But MacRae and a steering committee wants it to become a stronger, more influential voice.
Over the years, the group has been run on an ad hoc basis out of Garry Clark’s geological consulting office in Thunder Bay.
For MacRae and others, it’s high time to professionalize the OPA with dedicated staff in a standalone office. He’d like that office to be located in Timmins.
The search is on to recruit a full-time executive director, a process that could take three months or more. A news release said that person would have the “regulatory expertise needed to guide the OPA into its next chapter” and would have “the experience needed to help set a positive and inclusive tone for the next generation of OPA leadership.”
The new executive director would have an administration staffed by an office manager a part-time bookkeeper.
Their work would be supported by an annual budget of $400,000 to pay for salaries, marketing and support needs. Documents provided by the OPA indicate a one-time $150,000 restructuring budget.
A big part of their effort is rebuilding and broadening its base to include junior and major mining companies, industry suppliers, service companies like diamond drillers, provincial and national mining organizations, and just about anyone that makes a living off of the exploration side of the industry.
MacRae said it’s vitally important that a new OPA cultivates better relationships with First Nations, the communities they work in, and that they renew connections with key industry organizations the Ontario Mining Association, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, and the Mining Association of Canada.
The OPA’s board of directors is being reconstituted with an emphasis placed on attracting more diverse representatives with different experiences and backgrounds, beyond just a geological ones.
“The whole new structure is we want younger people, and not necessarily solely in mining, but people that have diverse experiences so that we can fill out the board with a good mix of people,” said MacRae.
One seat on the six-member board will be filled by an Indigenous representative and another by someone from the corporate world.
Once in place, they’ll draft a new strategic direction and with new standing committees covering financial reporting, governance, land issues, membership and fundraising, education and special projects, and lobby issues staffed by volunteers.
There are many challenges and threats to the industry. There's criticism of the free-entry system that allows prospectors to stake and work claims on Crown land. But those issues won’t be tackled until the new organization is in place, MacRae said.
When contacted, the OPA's former executive director, Garry Clark, who soon will leaving the organization, disputes that the group has lost its voice.
“The OPA is relevant and continues to be relevant, though it would be well served with an increased membership.”
Exploration is often a high-risk, high-reward endeavour with long odds of success. There’s about a one in 1,000 chance that a mineral prospect actually becomes a mine.
Despite Ontario’s much-lauded mineral wealth, MacRae categorizes the exploration industry today as being in a “bit of the doldrums,” with many juniors finding it difficult to raise project financing.
That’s why recent funding made available in the Ontario Junior Exploration Program, including a dedicated pool for prospectors, is so important to extend support for the grassroots side of the industry.
Licensed prospectors can tap into a new Ontario funding stream in applying for up to $50,000 per project. Providing Indigenous employment and business spinoff opportunities has increased from $10,000 to $15,000 per project, potential boosting that total funding to $65,000 per applicant.
“The (prospector) program funds the individual who devotes his or her time to go out in the bush — as we say, boots on the ground — digging in the dirt and having the curiosity to wonder what they might find.
“If you don’t fund the prospector, you don’t have anything. These guys do it on their own, at their own expense.”
