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courage will get paid."
Courage has also been a prerequisite
in Québec's exploration. Total investment
in deposit appraisal plunged from $833.9
million in 2011 to a preliminary figure
of $220.1 million for 2015, with precious
metals comprising just over $108 million
of that figure. ISQ estimates exploration
expenditures will dip to $218.6 million for
2016, although the total number of metres
drilled is set to rise from almost 1.40 mil-
lion preliminary 2015 to 1.43 million
metres estimated for 2016.
More recently there have been occa-
sional bright spots and hints of upturn
for some metals and minerals. Gold leads
the way, with shipments rising from 41.4
tonnes in 2014 to a preliminary figure of
49.7 tonnes in 2015, the values rising from
$1.86 billion to $2.37 billion. ISQ estimates
49.5 tonnes for 2016 at a value of $2.36
billion. However, there has been a spring
in the yellow metal's step recently, with a
solid Q1 performance and safe-haven buy-
ing spurred by the "Brexit bounce" that
took gold well past the US $1,300/oz level.
It will be interesting to see what the final
value for 2016 will be on this.
Mergers and acquisition activity has
also picking up and Grieve noted that
fresh money was entering the jurisdiction
in a more meaningful way. "I think we're
seeing green shoots with some renewed
Building Stornoway Diamond's renard diamond mine located 350 km north of Chibougamau
in the James Bat region of northern Quebec. processing of ore began in mid-July, ahead of
schedule. photo courtesy Stornoway Diamond Corp.
