Thank you.
I might try to do this partly in English.
What is the context currently in Quebec for mineral exploration and mineral extraction? Basically, as in many other places in Canada and around the world, we are going through the biggest mining boom that our province has witnessed since the beginning of mining.
Essentially, if we look at the past 20 or 30 years, since 2005 we have augmented by many times investment and exploration all through Quebec, as well as the value extracted in the province of Quebec. In 2005, when the price of many metals and primary materials boomed and skyrocketed on the international markets, we went from $200 million in investment and exploration work to up to almost $600 million last year, and for 2011 it should be around the same range.So in five or six years, we went from $200 million to about $600 million in exploration work.
In terms of value extracted in Quebec, the same thing happened. Since 2004 or 2005, we have gone from a gross production value of about $2 billion or $3 billion a couple of years ago to almost $8 billion a year this year. These are massive changes.
So in a few years there have been significant changes, and they're due to global context, global trends, and a massive demand, especially from the big emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil, to name just a few. In Quebec, the main minerals being extracted, by value, are iron, nickel, zinc, and gold. These are the main cows, if I may call them that, of the mineral industry in Quebec. There will probably be some rarer metals, like lithium, and some other metals, or diamonds, for instance, that will be extracted in the years to come, but they will remain marginal in value compared to the existing extractions I just named.
Those investments and those values also trigger certain issues, such as environmental issues. We're now seeing hundreds of exploration projects throughout Quebec--between 400 and 600 every year. We went from about 15 or 20 mines just a couple of years ago, and now we're back to about 25. We'll go up to about 30 mines, probably, in the years to come. That massive boom is triggering environmental issues. We need resources in both federal and provincial ministries to take care of that mining boom to limit the impact on the environment.
It has also triggered some social issues. Mining is moving further north towards regions inhabited primarily by first nations, and there are still some issues of title rights and first nations traditional rights in some parts of northern Quebec that need to be dealt with and recognized.
There are social issues, because some of this mining boom is translating into a new kind of mining in Quebec, which does large, low-grade, open-pit mines that are often located close to communities, to established communities. Large, low-grade, open-pit mines, because of their size, their impacts on the land, and the noise, the dust, and other nuisances they create, trigger some social tensions in some parts of northern Quebec. That's something to keep in mind.
We need to keep in mind that these are non-renewable resources and that there is a more and more sensitive population that is asking for proper compensation for the extraction of those resources in the years to come, for future generations.
That is basically the context in brief. I think I have only about two minutes left...?