That's for sure. Your geographic location and mine might suggest that we have a favourable bias on this issue. That said, Abitibi-Témiscamingue is a fertile ground in the mining sector and a very fertile ground in the innovation and research sector.
Elements08, the new program at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, comes with players, professionals, highly qualified personnel, who will meet the needs of consumers. I am talking about companies that will need new technologies and new specializations to stand out in the market. Because of its university, its CEGEP and its specialized research chair, Abitibi-Témiscamingue will be of interest to companies wanting to create innovation. The funding and the presence of specialists on site will make it possible to provide these companies with expertise that is not available elsewhere.
This expertise is coupled with a strong mining industry and mineral wealth consisting of a variety of strategic metals. We are talking about rare earths, lithium and nickel, among others. A little further away, in the Laurentians, there is graphite. We have a series of metals, specialists, and an industrial sector that prove that Abitibi-Témiscamingue is a fertile ground for the development of secondary and tertiary processing. We can even talk about first processing, at the base, but in its continuity.