Revue d’affaires

[Version originale anglaise]
– Could you provide an introduction to Geologica and the various services you provide for clients across the market?

Founded in 1985, Geologica was established in Val d’Or, Abitibi, a very prolific gold mining district, at a time where mining exploration was booming and geological consultancy services were insufficient. The company’s professional team has reached 25 employees in peak periods. In the present economic and slower cycle, we manage to maintain a team of 10 to 15 professionals and technicians mainly on more advanced projects with solid concrete in situ resources and potential for growth. However, we also assist several clients in their property acquisition strategy using in house prepared geoscientific compilation and the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources accessible huge data bank. With innovative ideas and experienced well trained personnel, we can select properties in favourable metallogenetic areas as well as orient, devise and follow effective exploration strategies based on present and anticipated market trends.

In the field, our services, more specifically consist of geological mapping, sampling, diamond drill supervision, core logging, follow up with assay results validations and verifications prior to categorized ore resource calculations. Geologica also completes fair market valuations (F.M.V) of mining projects and properties for private and public companies, financial and legal institutions, government agencies…etc.

NI 43-101 technical reporting, qualified competent persons, QA-QC, diamond drill data base, geological interpretation, model validations, mineral property valuations and due diligence for informed decision making are all services we can provide. Locally, we are the geological consultants of choice.
While Geologica mostly specializes in exploration for precious and base metals, the last few years have kept us busy on projects for other commodities such as iron, rare earth minerals, lithium as well as aluminae-rich mudstones and red beds.

– Quebec has recently suffered in rankings of worldwide mining jurisdictions. How have you been able to adapt your services to deal with this new reality?

Being a small consulting firm, Geologica has never had any problems finding clients and keeping busy. As previously mentioned Quebec is still a very interesting place to work in and a friendly mining province due to available help programs, road access, infrastructure, and qualified manpower. The financing incentives remain even though the provincial government just slightly modified taxes and duties recently (an increase of 1% only instead of 5% like in Australia).

Quebec still has the most interesting flow through financing (150% deductible) program in the country. If you spend hard dollars in exploration, for instance, the government will reimburse you with close to 50% of your expenses in some cases (northern remote projects). Also there are numerous forms of tax credits and subsedies to accommodate the mining investors and enterprises. The incentives are there and the people in Quebec want mining to continue and prosper. The northern regions, especially depend heavily on mining and forestry which have seasonal and cyclic economies. I believe that the government will continue to listen and help the mining industry. If our mining industry can keep on communicating their concerns, and show the increasing mineral economic value for the government, then flexible programs adapted to their needs will be put in place by the government in order to keep northern populations more self-sufficient.

In Quebec, the geology is diversified and allows the workforce (geologists and engineers) to build a solid base for training, preparation and adaptations to overall types of metallogenic and geological environments which are encountered on all the continents of our beautiful planet Earth.

Foreign investors and developers, mainly from Japan (Sumimoto), Brasil (CVRD), China (Wisco), Russia (Rusal) and India (Arcelor Mittal) have recently made some fantastic and very significant acquisitions of mineral assets in Quebec. For example, in Val d’Or the Lamaque Project attracted Shandong Gold of China which acquired 10% interest in the share capital of Integra Gold Corp. Shandong Gold is a major gold producer in China. Several acquisitions were primarily completed for huge Iron-rich Projects and Deposits and large open-pit mining operations on the St-Lawrence North Shore (Wabush, Schefferville, Fermont), the Labrador Through, the James Bay territory, Ungava Raglan Nickel Belt… etc.