TIMMINS - A Northern geologist who represents one of the key players in the Ring Of Fire mining project, says Ontario needs a friendlier investment climate to reboot the mining exploration industry.

Without continued exploration and the discovery of new mineral deposits, the mining industry in Ontario will eventually fail according to Moe Lavigne who spoke at the opening of The Big Event on Wednesday.

Lavigne, a Timmins native, is the vice-president of exploration and development for KWG Resources Inc. which has a large stake in the Ring Of Fire.

Lavigne is taking part in an exploration forum at The Big Event and said Wednesday he was pleased to be part of the Timmins mining show, but somewhat disappointed that there were fewer exploration companies on site, compared to past years.

“Exploration or grass roots exploration in Ontario has come to a grinding halt,” Lavigne told the audience.

He said there are only a handful of companies that are able to carry out significant exploration, such as Lake Shore Gold of Timmins, because they’re self-financing and sustainable.

“Junior mining companies raise their money on the stock market. Investors no longer feel confident that if we discover a deposit of gold that we will have the opportunity to mine it. If they’re not confident, they’re not going to invest.”

He said he is running into more and more colleagues in mining exploration whose companies are failing.

“If you talk to the few people who represent the exploration industry here, they can no longer raise money on the stock market to support their drilling.”

He added that even some smaller companies with prospects in the Ring Of Fire are not able to raise enough financing to keep working.

Lavigne said the problem in Ontario is that the political and financial climate is such that investors don’t have faith in the return on investment.

“It’s mostly in Ontario. In Quebec it is a bit easier to raise money to do exploration but in Ontario the investors aren’t interested because they don’t feel if we find the prize that they’re going to get the profit from that prize.”

Lavigne’s comments seemed to have been endorsed by Patrick Brown, the newly-elected Ontario Progressive Conservative leader, who spoke to the mining audience just moments after Lavigne left the podium. Brown never mentioned the word Liberal, but it was clear he was making political hay at the expense of Kathleen Wynne’s government, which has been roundly criticized for not being more pro-active in helping to bring the project to reality, considering that mineral resources are a provincial responsibility.

“I really believe government can do better in supporting the mining sector,” said Brown, who added that he toured the Ring Of Fire are just last week, to learn more about the project.

“I find it a missed opportunity that we are not putting a focus on mining. I believe this could be a generational opportunity for the province of Ontario and for Canada. We plan to be ferocious advocates for the mining sector.”

Brown said it was fitting to have the Consul General of India attending the Timmins event considering that India has enjoyed hugely successful economic change in poorer parts of that country in recent years. Brown told the audience he visited India just a few years back to witness the economic change there.

“Some of the advice I got in India I think is very relevant to the mining sector in Northern Ontario,” said Brown. He related how he spoke to the Indian prime minister and asked how a certain part of his country became so successful.

“He said you need good roads to get product to the marketplace, you need cheap and dependable power and you need to cut red tape,” Brown recalled.

Then he said he said he put a similar question to mining people in the Ring of Fire area when he visited them last week.

“They said we need roads, we need rail, we need cheap power and we need some way, or find a way to expedite the permitting process. We need to cut down red tape,” he said.

Brown, who some day hopes to be premier of Ontario, promised if that day comes his focus will be to build the transportation corridors, provide affordable and reliable power and to indeed cut out the red tape.