Ms. Katia Opalka, Mr. René Branchaud and Mr. Sébastien Vézina, partners at Lavery, are mentioned for their mining law expertise in the November 2013 special issue of the Engineering and Mining Journal, which is entitled “Mining in Québec, Newfoundland and Labrador”. The E & MJ is an international publication with two-thirds of subscribers working for multinational mining companies in more than 120 countries.
In an article entitled “Mine (pronoun)”, Ms. Opalka examines a few provisions contained in Bill 43, which proposed a new Mining Act for Quebec and was voted down by the Official Opposition at the National Assembly on October 30, 2013. The provisions included extending environmental requirements, consulting the public with regards to mining projects and filing ore processing feasibility studies to enter into a mining lease.
On this latter issue, Mr. Branchaud points out that the obligation for mining firms to conduct feasibility studies for the transformation of minerals would prove unnecessarily costly for mining corporations. Mr. Vézina mentions that Lavery is seeing the rise of market practices wherein some assets, which might have been core assets a couple of months ago, are monetized in order to get additional liquidities.
To consult this special issue, click here.