MOOSOMIN — A financial assistance incentive program launched by the provincial government in 2018 saw an expansion recently in hopes of enticing younger companies to set up shop in Saskatchewan.
The Targeted Mineral Exploration Incentive provides a grant to exploration companies embarking on eligible drilling activities, with the July 9 announcement now including ground-based and boreable geophysical surveys plus pre-sampling work (such as core logging).
“We’re really pleased to see this,” said Pam Schwann, president of the Saskatchewan Mining Association. “We’ve been working with the government for a number of years now on the Critical Mineral Strategy and the related programs that are supporting it. Saskatchewan has great potential for a diversity of minerals for exploring for and producing. The changes really allow for more activities to be considered eligible for funding, and those activities would be leading up to drilling holes to look and see what’s actually in the ground.”
Through 2024-25, there were 27 exploration projects given the green light for TMEI dollars, some $1.9 million in funding. That turned into companies spending $76.5 million on those projects last year alone. In the course of the TMEI program, 96 projects received $5.9 million in funding, which resulted in 926 exploration drill holes and $172.5 million in total project expenditures.
“TMEI has been key to diversifying Saskatchewan’s mining sector by promoting drilling on hard rock mineral exploration projects,” said Energy and Resources Minister Colleen Young. “These changes will help us achieve our goals set out in Saskatchewan’s Critical Minerals Strategy, specifically, increasing Saskatchewan’s share of Canadian mineral exploration spending to 15 per cent and doubling the number of critical minerals produced in Saskatchewan, all by 2030.”
A key component to the success of the program has been simply listening to industry and what would help make Saskatchewan a more attractive place to do business.
“The government is very open to listening to what the industry says, and if it makes sense to make those changes,” Schwann said. “The program had been under-subscribed, so we were looking at ways that would actually help get more investment at an earlier stage and actually grow the amount of investment. We think that by moving up exploration activities to earlier in the cycle, it will actually end up identifying more drill targets in the end. Also, once you get to a drill stage, it’s easier to get those investors on stage, a lot more risk earlier. Having government support at the early stage is really beneficial.”
Junior companies are the main target of the TMEI program as they don’t have a revenue stream yet because they’re not at the production stage.
“They are that much more reliant on attracting investors to invest in their companies,” explained Schwann. “It’s really helping a lot more of our Saskatchewan-based companies and those in Vancouver and Toronto, but there will be some global attraction as well. Any dollar support that’s available, it helps their own dollars stretch that much further.”
Saskatchewan is an important location for mining operations, being home to 27 of the 34 critical minerals on Canada’s list. Programs like TMEI help ensure a predictable and stable regulatory framework, ultimately benefiting everyone across the province.
“Saskatchewan has potential in many different parts of the province for a variety of different minerals,” Schwann said. “The programs the government is supporting will help really diversify what’s being explored for and what’s being produced.”
