Quebec can profit from its mines even if they do not belong to it, argued yesterday the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon.

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“For me, what is important is not necessarily the ownership of the mine [but rather] how the government can ensure that the development takes place,” he said on the sidelines of an announcement. in the domain of health.

A Journal file revealed on Saturday that no less than 20 of the 22 active mines in Quebec are owned by companies from outside the province.

“The key to government […] is what we do with the minerals, which we convert more and more. What we see now in the field of lithium, graphite and nickel, where we take the ore, we extract it and we convert it [...]. We haven't finished the chain, but we're going to build it."

The Minister gave the example of the Australian company Sayona, which recently acquired the assets of North American Lithium, in Abitibi.

“We are zero shareholders, but we still had to give authorization for the permits, he specified. We imposed [...] that we make lithium hydroxide in Quebec [rather than abroad]. So, I think we can achieve our goals and that the value chain be Quebec without regard to the ownership [of the mines].”

we can't do everything here

The mining industry requires major capital investments that Quebec cannot finance alone, noted Pierre Fitzgibbon.

"We're talking billions of dollars," he said. We can't do everything in Quebec, that would be crazy. We need foreign investors insofar as they are able to deliver our vertical integration objectives.”

Mr. Fitzgibbon recalled that financially, the government “is very involved in the mines”. According to him, Investissement Québec is “a globally recognized mining investor”.