Todd Stone told delegates on Monday that Canada’s economic security will hinge on whether governments can clear a path for the grassroots work that finds the next generation of mines.
“We are at a crossroads. Not just as an industry. Not just as British Columbia. But as a sovereign nation,” Stone, president and CEO of the Association for Mineral Exploration B.C., said in his annual address at AME Roundup 2026.
Stone framed the moment as a test of Canada’s ability to move quickly on critical minerals as global trade relationships shift.
“Our greatest leverage in securing our future is right beneath our feet,” he said.
Roundup, the province’s largest technical mining conference, was expected to draw 7,000 to 7,500 delegates and eclipse last year’s attendance, Stone said ahead of the event.
Industry data show a sector with rising activity. British Columbia’s exploration sector employed 4,143 workers in 2024, up 10 per cent from 2023, supported by $552 million in spending on 283 projects, according to B.C. Business.
Gold accounted for $249 million of the total and critical minerals $225 million. Mining and exploration together support about 35,000 jobs in the province, with an average annual salary of $135,000, and the industry accounted for 28 per cent of B.C.’s exports in 2022, with a total economic impact worth $18 billion.
Stone warned that momentum at the top end can mask strain at the bottom.
“That’s why mineral exploration isn’t a ‘nice to have’. It’s essential to the achievement of our ambitions as a nation,” he said.
Earlier this week, Stone described “two stories taking place,” with major mine expansions and renewals moving forward while prospectors and junior companies are struggling. He pointed to fewer claims being registered in B.C.’s online staking system last year as a troubling trend during an industry resurgence.
For AME, the central issue is access to land.
“Nothing else matters if our explorers face a smaller and smaller land base to explore,” Stone said, arguing governments should stop restricting land access through policy and regulatory changes.
Land access has become increasingly entangled with Indigenous rights law and B.C.’s implementation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. AME has asked the province for “substantive” amendments to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, known as DRIPA, and the Interpretation Act, after a B.C. Court of Appeal decision last fall overturned the province’s mineral claims regime.
In a Jan. 13 news release, AME said an open letter to Premier David Eby set out four legislative changes and warned that anything less would leave the current framework “completely unworkable” for the exploration sector.
Stone said the province’s approach has “dramatically increased delay and confusion in mineral exploration,” hitting early-stage members hardest.
The debate is unfolding as the Eby government tries to speed major mine approvals.
It was reported on Monday that the province recently approved a $400-million expansion of Centerra Gold’s Mt. Milligan copper and gold mine in less than 10 months after applications were filed March 31. The paper said there are 24 mining projects in advanced stages of development in northern B.C., collectively valued at $40 billion.
Stone, a former B.C. cabinet minister who took the AME job last summer, closed with an appeal for broader public understanding of what exploration enables. “This sector doesn’t just discover minerals — it builds people,” he said, recalling his first summer “dirt bagging” on an exploration crew as a student.
“Our future is in our hands,” Stone said. “The opportunity is real. And it starts with Minerals for Tomorrow.”
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