Natural Resources committee  Unfortunately, that's not my area of expertise. I guess we haven't faced that kind of issue in the Northwest Territories, so it's a bit out of my realm of expertise.

Natural Resources committee  I think as was mentioned earlier, most of the rare earth deposits are different, with different mineralogy. Some of that mineralogy is relatively new with respect to processing rare earths. I think research and development in processing these minerals, which contain rare earths,

Natural Resources committee  There are two things I'd like to point out. Canada has a history of mining excellence and companies that are looking for rare earth products outside of China are looking for a culturally, politically stable country to invest in, and Canada fits that description. Some of the other

Natural Resources committee  Certainly, all of the drilling that we have done is all in the Northwest Territories, so all expenditures are with respect to that. Some of the hydrometallurgical testing has been in specialized labs and quite a bit of the testing has been in Ontario. With respect to the basic ex

Natural Resources committee  The content of the specific accommodation agreements is something I'd prefer not to discuss; however, the theme of the accommodation agreements is to engage first nations and aboriginal groups in our project to provide services through their businesses, help create businesses tha

Natural Resources committee  The basic principles of mining for rare earths are similar to the basic principles of base metal mining or of mining gold or zinc, for which there has been mining in the Northwest Territories. I'm less familiar with diamond mining, which is another big type of mining employment.

Natural Resources committee  At the early stage the economic activity in the Northwest Territories for drilling is restricted to that. Once you get into construction, you need to bring in a larger workforce and there is much more activity. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on th

Natural Resources committee  That's a good question. The Northwest Territories has a population of about 40,000 people. Our project is not considered a large project with respect to employment; it's not thousands of jobs. We believe that, through training and through the time lapse between now and the time w

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, I am happy to be able to testify before the committee this morning. I am standing in for our CEO, Don Bubar, whom some of you may know. He was unable to be here as today is Avalon's annual general meeting of shareholders in Toronto. As mentioned, my name is Pierre