Good morning, everyone. Thanks to the committee for the invitation to speak with you this morning. I'm going to focus a little more on Saskatchewan than others, but that will give you a broader perspective.
Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, as I was announced, I'm Bryan Schreiner, the chief geoscientist of the Saskatchewan Research Council. My role at SRC involves providing technical leadership and expert guidance pertaining to minerals as well as looking for new opportunities in the minerals resource industry and various other sectors in the economy.
SRC is a leading provider of applied research, development and demonstration, and technology commercialization. We are a member of Canada's research and technology community and work directly with industry to put ideas into commercial practice. We move things from the laboratory to the loading dock, as we like to say. SRC is known across Canada as an independent and objective research and technology organization that provides quality results. Our focus areas lie in the energy, environment, and mining and mineral sectors.
Specific to the mining industry, we provide solutions to challenges across the complete mining cycle. We have a long history of working in uranium and potash. As you know, Saskatchewan is noted for uranium and potash. But we're also very involved in diamonds, other minerals, golds, and base metals, and more recently in rare earth minerals. Our laboratories and experts provide services related to mineral exploration, mineral processing, tailings management, and reclamation and decommissioning.
I'm here today to discuss the rare earth industry and the work that SRC has been performing for the industry in this area. As you just heard and the committee has been informed before, the world demand for rare earth has increased in recent years due to increased use of high-tech equipment, but at the same time, also to the restriction of export from the major supplier, China, as well as their increased usage. This demand has created over 200 exploration projects in Canada alone, and many more around the world. Many of these are in eastern Canada, some in the Northwest Territories—and you just heard about Avalon—and Saskatchewan, and other locations in Canada.
In response to the industry demand, SRC has expanded its existing service offerings and added capabilities to assist companies in their exploration efforts by providing rare earth element analytical packages, but also by providing mineral processing and hydrometallurgy, which is further down in the cycle.
We work with mining companies to develop rare earth properties through laboratory, bench scale, pilot testing, and field implementation, and we offer all stages of rare earth metallurgical tests, from preliminary detailed pilot plan testing to effluent and tailings treatments. Our mineral processing capabilities help our clients to determine the optimum processes to recover and concentrate the rare earth elements. As you heard from Mr. Neatby, the processing is often a critical component in whether the deposit is actually economic or not.
In fall 2013, with support from the federal government through Western Economic Diversification, and based on industry demand, SRC completed the construction of a state-of-the-art mineral processing pilot plant that is the first of its kind in western Canada. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the federal government for that support. This plant supports the development and demonstration of new, improved methods for processing minerals and enables pilot-scale demonstration of new technologies that increase yields and decrease costs. We're also one of the limited Canadian providers of QEMSCAN. This is a precise, quantitative mineralogical analysis process through the use of a sophisticated electron microscope. These services are essential for proving resource deposits that lead to successful mine development and make it more efficient and economical to do business, especially in the rare earths area.
Companies that work with SRC rely on our international networks to access leading knowledge. SRC has carried out work on a number of projects for various companies in Saskatchewan, Canada, and other parts of the world. In fact, our experts at SRC are currently working with specialists from across the world to expand our Canadian knowledge and capabilities in rare earth element technology, which will keep Canada competitive in the industry in the future. I might just add that we are particularly working with some of the experts in China in this regard.
Not only does our work assist in exploration and processing, SRC also focuses on reducing and managing the environmental concerns that come from mining production. Waste treatment and management is another area in which SRC helps clients to operate in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner. We have experts who can assist clients with tailings management programs, reducing environmental impacts for their processes; remediation; and decommissioning of mined areas, taking it through the full cycle.
That's all the prepared statement I have for the time being. I'm very anxious to answer any questions you may have later.