Natural Resources committee  We have to be careful not to overly generalize. Not every Chinese company is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. I happen to know for a fact that the company that took control of the Cabot Corporation and the Tanco mine in Manitoba is an example of a very entrepreneurial p

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I would, actually. I'll just add to what Simon and Liz were just saying. This has been one of the key reasons that these supply chains have not yet been established in Canada. There's a lack of downstream processing facilities needed to, first of all, do the piloting work t

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for the invitation to be a witness here today. I'll give you a little bit of my background information. I'm a geologist. I've been involved in mineral exploration and development in northern Canada for 45 years now. For the last 26 years, I've been president

Natural Resources committee  I can add to that point on power generation. Actually, we are looking at supplementing our power needs at the site with renewable energy. One of the attributes of our site is that we're at the end of Great Slave Lake and it's a particularly windy area. We think we may have an eco

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I have something. I would not be in favour of government legislating on the consultation process. I believe that will ultimately resolve itself. The way this industry will evolve is that aboriginal people will become more involved in the industry. They will become greater

Natural Resources committee  We didn't find any bias in that process whatsoever. The land-use regulations are fairly strict. There are a lot of things you have to comply with under different permits. It's well understood that you're going to be inspected from time to time to make sure you're in compliance.

Natural Resources committee  No.

Natural Resources committee  We are in the process of negotiating an equity participation arrangement with our aboriginal partners. Right now that is our objective, and that's what we think the future is for first nations participation in the mineral economy in the north.

Natural Resources committee  I'm not sure what he would say. Mr. Swisher, would you like to comment on that?

Natural Resources committee  Well, exactly that. In other jurisdictions where I've worked, when you're going through the permitting process and you run into specific issues that don't clearly fit within existing precedents or standard practice, you sit down with the regulators and figure out the solution t

Natural Resources committee  In the review board, yes. We referred specifically to the public meetings held as scoping sessions, where the regulatory officer acts as the chair of the meeting. He addresses the meeting and makes remarks. In his remarks, he basically says that the mining company has to prove it

Natural Resources committee  No. We just want it to be unbiased.

Natural Resources committee  We're not planning to build a road, so that's an infrastructure requirement we're not particularly focused on. I'll let Robin comment on that. Certainly power is an issue. Increasing the capacity for power generation from the Taltson dam there is important to the overall health

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Avalon Rare Metals Inc. is one of the few mineral developers in the north with an advanced development project. It's called Nechalacho. It's a unique deposit. It's one of the highest-quality mineral deposits of its kind in the world, enriched in the rar