By: John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: The Daily Gleaner October 28, 2025

Susan Holt in the NB legislature last week

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt is upset that the province’s once-thriving mining industry has gone quiet and wants to see a new mining strategy start paying off by next year.

Most mining projects in Canada in recent times have taken 20 to 30 years to develop from the discovery of minerals, to digging them up and selling them, but Holt says her Liberal government will streamline the process to get projects off the ground.

She is pushing for revived mining activity in New Brunswick in 2026.

“There are short-term benefits to be realized here, but the ultimate goal is long-term benefits for New Brunswickers,” the premier told Brunswick News on October 27th following her participation in a panel discussion at New Brunswick’s 50th annual exploration, mining and petroleum conference in Fredericton.

“We want something that is going to generate opportunity and prosperity for New Brunswickers for years and years and years and generations to come as we used to see from our history as a mining community.”

Holt has no illusions that machinery will be firing by next year, digging up rocks to extract gold, copper, tungsten and the like.

But she said she still wants to see the industry contribute to New Brunswick’s economy.

“I don’t have the forecast of whether that’s a 20% or a 50% increase in 2026, because some of the activity we’re going to see next year is the development activity to restart this mine or that mine,” she said.

“It’s the activity of investment in that head office or that setup and that training for those people who are doing some of the pre-work. 
But that’s all new money to our economy that we didn’t have yesterday, and that’s more good-paying jobs for New Brunswickers.”

Declining activity

During her talk on the panel in front of geologists, mining executives and investors, the premier said it was only a few generations ago when 7% of New Brunswick gross domestic product was through mining activity near Bathurst and other bustling sites where miners had highly paid jobs.

Today, it is less than 1%, with the only really significant production being the salt mines near Sussex.

Holt told the crowd her interest was piqued last February when she and her team were in Washington, D.C., for talks about the punishing U.S. duties on New Brunswick’s softwood lumber exports.

She said a representative of a law firm that she didn’t name told her there was also great interest in developing the province’s mineral deposits. The province has 13 of the 34 listed as critical by Ottawa.

“I realized we had something valuable to offer we weren’t selling,” she told her audience at the Fredericton Delta.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo: Wikipedia

Holt recounted that at another meeting shortly after, on this occasion with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, she became convinced New Brunswick was missing out.

Ford told her about his desire to develop the vast mineral wealth in the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario and the possible construction of thousands of kilometres of permanent roads to replace increasingly unreliable ice roads.

“Good heavens,” she remembered thinking of her province’s relatively small footprint of 73,000 square kilometres, more than 10 times smaller than the behemoth that is Ontario.

“In New Brunswick, nowhere is hard to reach. Everywhere within this province is accessible within a few hours.”

Four more mines

Natural Resources Minister John Herron, who participated in the panel discussion and was beside the premier when she talked to Brunswick News, said he was following closely what his boss had instructed him to do.

He used the October 27th event to announce the Liberal government’s framework for a comprehensive mineral strategy.

The full-blown version will be delivered in the new year, with legislation introduced to encourage more mining.

“I’ll be audacious enough to suggest that we’ll have three, if not four, mineral sites having a high degree of activity on them this time next year,” Herron told Brunswick News.

The minister specifically named Mount Pleasant, where Adex Mining wants to develop North America’s largest deposit of tin and biggest known reserve of indium; Sisson Brook, the site Northcliff Resources wants to turn into an open-pit tungsten and molybdenum mine; and several properties in the old Bathurst mining camp, home to vast stores of copper, nickel and lead.

“So we’re going from no mines, except for the salt mine, to four additional sites of having economic activity. I think that’s a pretty significant change.”

Mining skeptics

Earlier, however, there were skeptics among the audience.

Wayne Lockhart, an experienced geologist and owner of Lockhart Exploration, asked the premier and the minister on the stage why so little was being spent on the mining section in the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development – less than 10% of its overall budget (indeed, the 2025 Liberal budget earmarked $11 million for mining in the natural resources envelope of $141 million).

“We should spend more money in the mining sector than on wildlife protection!” Lockhart shouted, with the crowd roaring in approval.

Holt replied that her government had tough spending choices to make and promised people more money for health care and other priorities.

“I have limited dollars to play with,” she said.

This story from Brunswick News was written by Local Journalism Initiative Reporter John Chilibeck