Secure land tenure

Ontario's Mining Act provides security of mining land tenure and fair and transparent mining law, allowing your company to plan long-term growth. Currently there are 253,000 active mining claims in good standing in Ontario.

$10.1 billion and growing

Ontario's mineral production has shown solid growth over the past 10 years, with a total value of $10.1 billion in 2018, and is forecast to keep growing in the long term.

In Ontario, you will find a diversified economy with a highly skilled workforce and abundant natural resources. Our economy has a proven record of weathering economic uncertainty in global markets, allowing you to focus on the future.

View mining claims

View active unpatented mining claims in Ontario with the Mining Lands Administration System Map Viewer.

Is your company where the action is?

Ontario offers highly competitive business costs that can boost your company's growth and profitability:

• on a global level, Ontario ranks among the top ten regions for exploration spending and production of platinum group metals (PGMs) and nickel
• in 2018, mining companies in Ontario spent $583 million on over 200 exploration projects ranging from prospecting to advanced exploration
• Ontario produces more than $10 billion worth of mining supplies and services every year
• we attract more exploration spending and produce more minerals by value than any other jurisdiction in Canada

Ontario mining sites

Over 200 mineral exploration projects are currently underway in Ontario. One very promising mineral development opportunity in Ontario is known as the Ring of Fire. Located in Ontario's Far North, current estimates suggest multi-generational potential of chromite production and significant production of nickel, copper and platinum. In the Ring of Fire, work continues to advance at the Eagle's Nest nickel-copper deposit.

The information you need

Need more specific information? We offer a comprehensive array of maps, surveys, reports and digital data to help you make an informed decision for your business operations. Contact us to find out more.

How Ontario compares

The global mining industry gets business done in Ontario. That means that you'll have access to markets and capital, whether you're in mining finance or looking for capital to grow your business.

• Approximately 1,200 mining companies were listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V) in 2018, including more than half of the public mining companies in the world.
• Capital investment in mining in Ontario has increased from $735 million in 2004 to 2.1 billion in 2018.
• In 2018, the TSX and TSX-V raised $6.5 billion in new equity capital for mining.
• In 2017, approximately 70% of all new mining equity capital raised in the world came from the TSX and TSX-V.

Grow with the right talent

If you are looking for the right people, Ontario offers a deep talent pool for sourcing mining, energy and infrastructure industry personnel, including managerial and technical staff. You will find one of the best mining education clusters in the world to support your company's growth.

Nineteen of Ontario's 22 universities and 24 colleges have world-class mining, geology and engineering programs. In addition, Ontario's mining industry is supported by an array of R&D institutes. Explore the map to see where our programs are located.

A record of safe mining operations

Our workforce also helps to ensure safe mining operations. Ontario is one of the safest mining jurisdictions in the world and continues to improve both the lost time injury rate and total medical injury rate.

• Ontario had zero mining injury fatalities in 2018.
• Ontario's 2018 lost time injury rate for mining was 0.5 per 200,000 employee hours while in 2017 it was 0.6.
• Our 2018 total injury rate for mining was 3.9 per 200,000 employee hours while in 2017 it was 4.0.

The Northern Industrial Electricity Rate Program assists Northern Ontario’s largest industrial electricity consumers to reduce energy costs and sustain jobs. The program provides investment of up to $120 million annually to support large industrial electricity users in Northern Ontario, including several mining companies. It can help you reduce electricity costs by up to 25%.

The federal Mineral Exploration Tax Credit program provides investors in the flow-through shares of mineral exploration companies working in Canada a 15% tax credit. Ontario provides an additional permanent Ontario Focused Flow-Through Share 5% Tax Credit for companies exploring in the province. The program allows tax credits and tax deductions for exploration to “flow through” to investors purchasing the shares. A $1,000 investment in flow through shares for exploration in Ontario could cost as little as $375 after federal and provincial tax credits and deductions.

Mineral exploration and development consultants with the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines can provide guidance and oversight for a mineral development project in Ontario. This includes the 'one window' coordination process – an overview of legislation and regulations and details on how to work with the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines to coordinate with other regulators.

Ontario's updated Mining Act includes initiatives such as online mining claims registration with the Mining Lands Administration System (MLAS); and providing more clarity with respect to the rights of Indigenous communities and private landowners in the mineral development process.

Mineral sector research in exploration and deep mining is conducted at Ontario schools and at organizations including:

• Laurentian Mining Innovation and Technology organization, which includes MERC and MIRARCO
• NORCAT
• Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation

Ontario's geoscience data is widely recognized as one of our competitive advantages. Public geoscience information enables exploration companies to make informed decisions regarding their exploration projects.

• Ontario's is ranked 20th in the world for the quality of its geological database by the Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies, 2018.
• The Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) provides a wealth of geoscience data through its Geology Ontario and OGSEarth online applications.
  • Geology Ontario provides online user-friendly access to public geoscience data including 17,000 OGS geological reports and maps, as well as 80,000 exploration assessment files that are available online for discovery and downloading at no charge.
  • OGSEarth provides geoscience data relating to mining claims, geology, index maps, administrative boundaries and abandoned mines that can be viewed using 3D mapping and viewing tools such as Google Earth or other applications that are compatible with Keyhole Markup Language (KML). All data provided by OGSEarth is available in KML format.

Related content

Mineral development resources