Revenge of the MinersThe post-COVID-19 economic recovery should ring in the era of the Revenge of the Miners, according to legendary mining financier Robert Friedland in opening the Association for Mineral Exploration B.C.s Remote Roundup conference. Friedland, in remarks recorded from his own COVID-19 isolation outpost in Singapore, argued that once governments grapple with what a post-pandemic recovery is going to look like people are waking up to the fact that certain elements in the periodic table are going to be huge winners. Copper is going to be needed in massive amounts to electrify greener industries, along with minerals such as nickel and cobalt, Friedland said, especially with governments joining in with infrastructure investment aimed at improving the economic equality of their citizens. That was a heartening perspective to Bruce Ralston, B.C. minister of Energy Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, who came to the AMEs Remote Roundup with his own bit of good news. Ralston reported to the conference that prospectors spent $422 million on exploration work in a pandemic-paused 2020 the best year since 2012 which is a signal of hope that the province will be a preferred source, from an environmental and social-governance perspective, for a lot of those minerals. I was quite taken by that (perspective), Ralston said about what he had learned of Friedlands comments, which included a prediction that future commodity markets will give premiums to suppliers that can show a provenance of responsible production. B.C. mining exploration, like all industry, was suspended in 2020 but picked up pace after government declared the exploration sector as essential. Ralston said the exploration sector did a good job of developing COVID-19 safety protocols that had the support of communities and Indigenous governments, and government included the industry in measures to make it easier for the industry to keep working. Its our hope that B.C.s mining and exploration sector can leverage the opportunity within our economic recovery package to strengthen their sector and in turn help the provinces overall economic recovery through investments and job growth, Ralston said in his remarks to the conference. The federal government is also banking on mining as a source of post-pandemic economic strength, according to Natural Resources Minister Seamus ORegan, who characterized responsible resource extraction as our family business.