AME BC Members Directory & Buyers Guide - The Association for ...

The industry then and now: A B.C. Chamber of Mines (now AME BC) exhibit at the Industrial Exhibition (now PNE) in Vancouver circa 1928 (above left);
the Geoscience BC display in the 2010 Mineral Exploration Roundup Map Tent (above middle).
“MABC represents mine operators in
the province and AME BC is the voice of
explorationists,” Giraud says. “The two
groups have different interests. The operators,
since they already have a mining
operation, are interested in things like
taxation and the cost of doing business.
Explorationists, who don’t have an operating
mine yet, are more concerned about
things like tax credits and access to land.
But because many operators also explore,
there is some overlap between the two.”
Giraud says the many regional exploration
groups across the province fulfil an
important need for explorationists, allowing
them to get together socially and to
share technical and geological information.
“Most of them are not as involved in
government advocacy as MABC and
AME BC,” he says. “What they answer is a
need for community.”
He adds history and geography are the
reasons for so many regional mining
associations in B.C. “The gold rush in
the 1850s and 1860s led directly to the
creation of the province in 1871,” he says.
“And many parts of the province were
very difficult to reach from outside until
the second half of the 20th century.”
Although there are advantages to being
so rich in mining and exploration associations,
it has created some challenges as
well. “One of the problems of having so
many mining associations is that governments
like to have the industry speaking
to them with one voice,” Giraud says. “But
26 SUMMER 2010 Photographs: AME BC archives, Brian Dennehy/AME BC