Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to talk about the importance of mining in Canada.
Canada is one of the largest mining nations in the world, with projects across the country. It would not be an exaggeration to add that Canada is probably the world's greatest mining nation, outstripping all our international competitors in depth, extent and expertise of our minerals and metals sector, both domestically and around the world.
Canadian companies are now working in more than 100 countries, in more than 10,000 projects, with mining assets outside of Canada worth more than $109 billion in capitalization. We produce more than 60 minerals and metals, with a magnitude of the assets within Canada similar to our assets abroad, with foreign direct investment into Canada accounting for about $80 billion.
The significance and enormity of these undertakings cannot be overstated. Since the early days of our country, mining has been a cornerstone to Canada's economy. It was and is the lifeblood of rural towns and villages in all provinces and territories, from Thetford Mines and Baie Comeau in Quebec to Kitimat in British Columbia.
On the human scale, more than 308,000 Canadians are employed in mining, exploration and mineral processing, with tens of thousands more men and women working in related industries such as banking, equipment supplies and legal services. It is important to point out that mining is the number one employer of aboriginal people in Canada.
Last year, the mining and mineral processing industries made huge contributions to the Canadian economy. For example, $2.6 billion was spent in mineral exploration and deposit appraisal, a significant economic stimulus to rural and remote regions of Canada. These industries contributed $35.1 billion to our gross domestic product and over $12 billion in capital investment.
Canada has always been a trading nation and one of the main reasons is our abundance of natural resources. We are indeed blessed to have so many commodities in hot demand around the world.
At the international level, the evidence of Canada's importance as a major miner is clear when we take a look at our exports. The total value of Canadian mineral exports was $84.5 billion, accounting for 21% of Canada's total exports last year. Put another way, the net impact of these exports contributed $18 billion to our trade surplus.
Here is another impressive financial fact. Half of the world's equity financing for mineral exploration and mineral development was raised in Canadian stock exchanges. Mining companies with headquarters in Canada accounted for more than 39% of worldwide exploration expenditures last year.
We are a leading supplier of important minerals and metals, such as uranium, nickel—