John Herron has been shopping around a colourful map to anyone who will look.
Produced by the Geological Survey Branch of New Brunswick’s Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, it shows the seven main areas of the eastern province where critical minerals and valuable metals are found.
Circled on the map are the gold deposits in the northwest and southwest, manganese in the Woodstock area, indium in Mount Pleasant, potash near Sussex, tungsten north of Fredericton, and lead, copper, zinc and silver near Bathurst.
And those are just the highlights. The Liberal cabinet minister boasts this relatively small province has 21 of the 34 minerals Ottawa deems critical, even if most of them remain untouched and out of production.
He’s desperate to see more of these precious resources dug up and sold, creating jobs and wealth for everyday people, and taxes and royalties for his government.
“We have the largest undeveloped geological opportunity in indium, which is in your cell phone, the largest undeveloped source of manganese, used for steel,” said the former Tory turned Liberal politician in a recent interview, mere months after giving the same feverish pitch to mining CEOs and investors in Toronto.
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