What led you to co-found Laurentia Exploration?

The mining industry is cyclical. When we founded Laurentia Exploration, the industry was at the bottom of the cycle. At this point, myself and two other geologists I graduated with from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) were seeking employment and could not find opportunities in the market that matched our professional aspirations. We decided to establish our own company to take on new challenges and offer professional consulting geology services to the industry. Immediately after opening business, we started to get requests from exploration companies, demonstrating the need for geological consulting services at that time. Our first contracts were with Harfang Exploration in James Bay, then with Genesis Metals on their Chevrier gold project. From this point, Laurentia never stopped growing, and we have been continuously adding more contracts and clients to our portfolio.

Today, our team is qualified in several domains going from exploration program design, drill program proposal, organization, supervision and management, compilation and georeferencing of historical data, geological 3D modelling of mineralization, alterations and lithologies, assessment report, staff loaning, and supporting clients from the conception stage to complete execution on the field. Our main clients are junior exploration that want us to assist them with project execution.

Can you provide examples of recent projects that Laurentia has worked on?

Our current largest project is the Cape Smith Belt project with KoBold Metals. Laurentia manages everything on this project including organization, camp construction, permitting, landing authorization, discussions with the community, geophysical services, helicopter and drilling. We also offer services to clients such as Canada Silver Cobalt Works on their Graal project; Jayden Resources for their Storm Lake project; Amex Exploration on their Perron project; and Starr Peak Mining on their NewMétal project; Nuvau Minerals Corps on their Matagami project; Delta Resources on several projects; Genius Metals on their Sakami project; BMEX Gold on 2 properties; Voyager Metals on their Mont Sorcier project to name a few.

Could you briefly speak to the different partnerships Laurentia has?

Laurentia works with different geophysicists in Québec depending on the type of survey and client we have – whether it is more gold-oriented and requires structural analysis or more base metal oriented and requires more technical electromagnetics. We also partner with companies for analysis and have an agreement with laboratories for assaying which offers a good price for the volume of assays we send their way. Having strong partnerships with drilling contractors is paramount as we do more drilling than mapping, exploration, or anything else. In the last year, Laurentia was fortunate to strike a great deal with a drilling company which allowed us to secure a rig for an entire year to utilize on our different contracts.

What commodities are currently driving growth for your company?

Gold remains a staple in our business and base metal VMS ore deposits also form a large part of our activities. But over the past year we added more diversity in our client and commodity portfolio. As the mining industry is cyclical it was important for us to make place for a wider range of customers. We then had the opportunity to start working with Canada Silver Cobalt Works on their nickel-copper project. This collaboration is ongoing for two years now and it opened other opportunities for us within the critical metals space.

What do you hope will drive Laurentia’s growth over the coming years, particularly as we might see a tightening of some budgets down the line?

Laurentia essentially sells geological expertise and time, and we hope to keep our geological team in health and strong. Our staff is the most important part of our business, and we aim to have the best team as to deliver the best services to our customers. We have a family-like company culture which creates a fun and favorable working environment and helps us to retain talent. Laurentia aims to keep growing and continue serving the Canadian mining industry for many years to come.