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Maureen Jensen on the ‘advent of digital finance’ GMS
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| Miners must embrace change to access capital, says former OSC exec
BY HENRY LAZENBY
he brisk, sweeping changes Industry 4.0 brings to the financial landscape are forcing miners to rethink how they operate while regulators closely watch and prepare to implement new rules to curb fraud and criminal activity, says industry doyen Maureen Jensen. The former CEO of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) told The Northern Miner’s recent Global Mining Symposium that the scale of change has seen the digitizalization of every facet of our modern financial system, including how miners dig holes in the ground. “Everything is digital today. There are only one or two exchanges that still have open outcry floors. In North America, everything has gone digital,” she said. “But even more important than that, the financial markets have gone global. And that is a huge change.” According to Jensen, as a result, regional exchanges have lost prominence. Most large companies are now multi-listed in various jurisdictions, some of them even listed enough to trade almost 24 hours a day. “What we’re seeing today is the advent of digital finance. This includes crypto — most regulators are now looking at crypto assets of all kinds — and non-fungible tokens. All kinds of things can be listed and traded on an exchange. Fractional shares have turned into a large business,” Jensen said. The rise of sustainable investing is another way the financial landscape is evolving. The largest institutional shareholders have always driven markets, and Jensen pointed out that critical companies such Vanguard and BlackRock, with their significant positions in many funds, are changing the world via policy directives. “We’re also seeing new kinds of exchanges like the Neo Exchange. They’re constantly looking for new things. And there is a change in the type of exchanges, the listing criteria, and the amount of information you can collect daily.” Jensen said miners had traditionally been innovative “when they had to,” and the rise of the digital economy is one of those moments in time the industry would have to adapt to continue accessing reasonable financing since today, that comes with ESG strings on the side.
Ecuador positions itself as South America’s most promising mining frontier | ‘Romantic environmentalism’ fading as new mines provide local benefits POLITICS
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Maureen Jensen, former CEO of the Ontario Securities Commission. TEMPO PHOTOGRAPHY
Amidst all this change, Jensen also noted that surveillance has caught up. “Today, surveillance is done with artificial intelligence and algorithms. It’s a different world,” she said.
“And it’s a world that mining is very involved with, and so people will see mining shares, over multiple markets, moving very See JENSEN / 19
BY TOM AZZOPARDI
ince taking office a year ago, President Guillermo Lasso has placed his chips firmly on mining to bring the investment and jobs needed to revitalize Ecuador’s economy. Under an action plan launched in August 2021, the government set out a wide-ranging to-do list to get the sector moving, from speeding up permitting and reopening the claims system to convincing a sometimes-skeptical public of the benefits mining can bring. The government’s aim is to push five priority projects —Atico Mining’s (TSXV: ATY; US-OTC: ATCMF) La Plata; Dundee Precious Metals’ (TSX: DPM; US-OTC: DPMLF) Loma Larga; Adventus Mining’s (TSXV: ADZN; US-OTC: ADVZF) Domo; Lumina Gold’s (TSXV: LUM; US-OTC: LMGDF) Cangrejo and SolGold’s (TSX: SOLG; LSE: SOLG) Cascabel) — into construction by the time it stands down in 2025. It’s a tall task, but Ecuador is
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not starting from scratch. The country’s first two industrial-scale mines (Ecuacorriente’s US$1.4-billion Mirador copper mine and Lundin Gold’s (TSX: LUN) US$700-million Fruta del Norte operation) entered production in 2019 and a slew of majors and minors have been scouring the country for a decade. Progress slowed amid a rise in anti-mining protests, bureaucratic and legal tangles and then a devastating pandemic, but things have started to change. Environmental licences, which once took close to two years to approve, now take less than a year, according to Andres Ycaza, a mining lawyer and partner at Quito-based Flor, Bustamante, Pizarro & Hurtado Abogados. See ECUADOR / 6
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