I am pleased to be here in Beijing to speak to the Canada China Business Council about investment opportunities in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The Northwest Territories economy has been built on luxury items – furs, gold and now diamonds. From the earliest days, our trappers provided beautiful, thick furs to buyers all over the world. They still do that. Wild fur from the Northwest Territories is of excellent quality and always in high demand at fur auctions. That makes us an ideal source of fur to supply China’s world leading fur garment industry.
Over time, the action in the Northwest Territories moved beneath our feet. Mining became the driving force of our economy. Today our mineral resources are still our biggest asset and represent the best investment opportunity for China.
I am talking about billions of dollars’ worth of diamonds. We have mines in full production with more diamonds yet to be discovered.
Gold has been mined for decades, with more mines planned in the next few years.
Rare earth minerals are not so rare in the Northwest Territories. They are available for responsible, sustainable development. We have a zinc, silver and lead mine expected to open within a year. We have experienced miners ready to work.
And more oil and clean natural gas deposits are being found every year. Right now, I am especially excited about the shale oil play in the central Mackenzie. It could have between two and three billion barrels of recoverable oil. And there is an estimated 81.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and nearly seven billion barrels of oil remain waiting to be tapped in our territory.
The Arctic offshore also exhibits great potential, and it is estimated that the area north of the Arctic Circle has 90 billion barrels of undiscovered recoverable oil, 1,670 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of recoverable natural gas liquids in 25 geologically defined areas.
The Mackenzie River offers another source of potential energy and another investment opportunity for China. The Mackenzie has some of the best undeveloped hydroelectric resources in North America. And there are seven smaller rivers with hydro potential in our territory.
That is clean energy that would supply a hungry market to the south of us. It would be a long-term investment with significant upfront capital costs. Fifty to one hundred or more years of low operating and maintenance costs will provide an excellent return on investment.
The Northwest Territories welcomes foreign investment in our territory. Our government provides any company looking to invest with general support and information. We also support the resource exploration and development sector through the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office. The office does geoscience research and analysis of mineral and petroleum resources. With this information, developers can assess and evaluate areas with high resource potential.
The Northwest Territories is a land rich in resources and potential. I hope that you will seriously consider the opportunities available to you there. I know you will not be disappointed.
Thank you.