TSX Venture President Reiterates Support For Canada's Mining Industry

TSX Venture Exchange President Linda Hohol called on mining associations across Canada to continue to contribute to discussions aimed at reviewing reforms to Canada's securities regulation. "At TSX Venture, we have initiated reviews of our policies, aimed at reducing costs and timing associated with going, and being, public." Duplication of efforts and added costs, she feared, "might force miners to choose markets outside Canada to raise capital in the future." Ms. Hohol was speaking last night on a panel at the B.C.-Yukon Chamber of Mines Cordilleran Roundup Conference along with Doug Hyndman, Chair, BC Securities Commission, David Brown, Chair, Ontario Securities Commission and Frank Swedlove, General Director, Department of Finance.

Ms. Hohol credited miners with helping initiate talk about regulatory costs and duplication, "The mining industry was onto this problem well before we were with some pretty tough talk to federal and provincial mines ministers." She added, "The fact there are 13 different regulatory jurisdictions in this country, we have a system that is too costly, too slow and too fragmented to sustain the kind of competitive capital market we need to become. And miners continue to voice their concerns to us."

Competitive costs are a prime concern of miners across Canada. Ms. Hohol said, "On TSX Venture some 38 per cent of our listings are miners. And mining companies, above all others, have been conscious of the costs associated with the complexities and delays associated with having to register in multiple jurisdictions." There are 194 listed mining companies on TSX and 947 listed mining companies on TSX Venture - more than half the miners in the world on the two exchanges.

But while unnecessary costs can be a problem, Canada still appears to be the market of choice for miners. "While some may feel the pressure to interlist may be growing, statistics still show that the number of equity financings for exploration during 2002 shows that TSX Venture had 1,240 financings, TSX 201 and AIM in London with only 68.