Tax breaks could spur $1.1B more in exploration: AME

Expanding Canada’s mining tax incentives may boost exploration spending by $1.1 billion, EY estimates.

Expanding Canada’s mining tax incentives could attract up to $1.1 billion (C$1.6 billion) in additional annual exploration spending, accounting firm EY estimated in an analysis commissioned by the BC-based Association for Mineral Exploration (AME).

Including feasibility work in eligible exploration expenses and extending tax credits could help advance three to five additional mines under favourable market and policy conditions, according to EY’s economic assessment .

“Canada has what the world needs, and we have the opportunity to secure the mineral supply chain, strengthen Canada’s military capacity and ensure Canada’s long-term national and industrial sovereignty,” AME president and CEO Todd Stone said in an Oct.

The association wants engineering, feasibility and technical costs included under Canadian exploration expenses, a category of deductions companies can transfer to investors through flow-through shares.

The push targets a financing gap between discovering a deposit and establishing whether it can support a mine.

The Liberal Party’s election platform pledged to expand eligible exploration activities.

But Budget 2025 proposed explicitly excluding expenses incurred to determine a mineral resource’s economic viability or engineering feasibility from Canadian exploration expenses.

That proposal followed a British Columbia Supreme Court decision allowing a broader interpretation of the provincial equivalent of the deduction.

Technical studies have generally been excluded under the Canada Revenue Agency’s interpretation of the federal rules, according to the budget documents .

Expanding Canada’s mining tax incentives could attract up to $1.1 billion (C$1.6 billion) in additional annual exploration spending, accounting firm EY estimated in an analysis commissioned by the BC-based Association for Mineral Exploration (AME).

Including feasibility work in eligible exploration expenses and extending tax credits could help advance three to five additional mines under favourable market and policy conditions, according to EY’s economic assessment .

“Canada has what the world needs, and we have the opportunity to secure the mineral supply chain, strengthen Canada’s military capacity and ensure Canada’s long-term national and industrial sovereignty,” AME president and CEO Todd Stone said in an Oct.

The association wants engineering, feasibility and technical costs included under Canadian exploration expenses, a category of deductions companies can transfer to investors through flow-through shares.