Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask questions to the Minister of ITI. I would like to ask the Minister if, prior to any mine opening, if they do potential resource revenues, that would be coming from the mine to the two governments? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think, depending on where they are in their cycle, if they are very close to starting up, our analysis unit does some forecasting for royalty revenue for the following year's budget.
I am going to assume that Neptune Resources or NICO mines has had that evaluation done. Can the Minister tell me if the resource revenue is coming from that mine is greater than the cost of the road from the highway to Whati?
I would have to get that level of detail from the department, but to clarify on my other statement, when we're doing forecasting of royalties and revenues from these mining companies, particularly in their very first years of operation, there are tax implications that they have with the federal government that they get to write off a number of these costs. It takes a while to put these mines in a situation where they are profitable versus what they are allowed to write off in their taxes.
I can look at what the detail we have around the NICO mine and see what their projection is for that ongoing. There are three different types of ore bodies there, and those are subjected to change to commodity markets, as well. It makes it a little tougher to probably figure out exactly what this thing is going to generate for revenue in the coming years.
Recognizing that we are in very early stages of any potential for what is happening in the mine that I spoke of earlier at Thor Lake at Nechalacho, I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister would be willing to have the department take a look at the potential resources revenues from that mine?
I could certainly have that discussion with the department. We don't know exactly what they're going to do yet. We know the opportunity they are looking at is a mini micro mine, very, very small-scale, but we can certainly have those discussions and see what the opportunities are for generating some type of resource revenues out of the mini mine that they are proposing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
