Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/392638
28 www.resourceworld.com o c t o b e r / n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 S ince the defeat of the Parti Québécois party when Philippe Couillard's Liberals won a majority government last April, mineral explorers and miners in Québec have been looking forward to the implementation of Plan Nord, a proposi- tion to develop northern Québec. When the Parti Québécois party came to power in the previous election, with their agenda to sepa- rate the Province of Québec from the rest of Canada, they scuttled the $80 billion Plan Nord which was originally proposed by the earlier provincial Liberal government. With the provincial Liberals now back in power, slightly revised, Plan Nord, which encompasses development covering 72% of Québec (1.2 million km 2 ), is once again active. Half of the area will be set aside for conservation. The original plan called for $33 billion to be spent on mining and infrastructure and $47 billion on renewable energy over 25 years. It has been estimated that Plan Nord will generate some 20,000 jobs and tax revenues of $14 billion. Divided into five phases, the first phase (2011-2016) will see $2.1 billion of public funds spent [including $500 million to be invested by Investissement Québec] in private resource companies. The majority of funds will go to develop roads, airports and other infrastructure projects in north- ern Québec. For mineral development, the northern region will need extensive infrastructure to be built, including roads, railways, hydroelectric power and housing. About $20 million has been set aside for a study on the feasibility of a new multi-user rail line that would provide access to the iron ore-rich Labrador Trough. Matthew Coon Come, Grand Chief of the northern Québec Cree, said his people are in favour of Plan Nord. Québec has territorial agreements with the Cree and is currently negotiating agreements with three Innu First Nations. Already a major mineral producer, Québec offers tremendous potential for further development and many resource companies are advancing their projects as summarized below. Adventure Gold Inc. [AGE-TSXV] reported a second set of positive drilling results on its 100%-owned, advanced- stage, Val d'Or East Pascalis gold project. Four holes totaling 542.5 metres were reported from the 15-hole drill pro- gram (2,966 metres). The four holes tested the west dike close to the main dike mined at the former L.C. Beliveau gold mine. Hole PC-14-72 returned 10.4 g/t gold over 10 metres in an intercept grading 2.6 g/t gold over 61.3 metres in the west dike and 3.6 g/t gold over 8.0 metres. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. [AEM-TSX, NYSE] had a quarterly net income of US $37.7 million, or 20 cents per share, for the second quarter of 2014. The company has three operating gold mines in Québec: LaRonde, Lapa and Goldex. In addition, Agnico-Eagle and Yamana Gold Inc. [YRI-TSX; AUY-NYSE; YAU-London] each exploration and Mining in Québec by Ellsworth Dickson MINING