Canada's miners are calling for Ottawa to introduce a comprehensive mining technology strategy as a sign of support for the booming industry.

Producers, explorers and equipment suppliers want the federal and provincial governments to collaborate with the industry on an integrated plan that would also involve universities.

Industry insiders are also calling for Ottawa to beef up mining technology research and development (R&D) funding.

"It's not nearly enough, considering the size of the industry and its importance to the economy, and the upside benefit to the consumer of the technology that could then be exported around the world," says Michael McPhie, president and CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia. "I don't have the exact numbers, but if you look at it as a share of biotech or fuel cells or whatever might be used, we're significantly underfunded in that regard."

According to a Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) R&D bulletin released in January, the two federal agencies responsible for most government spending on mining R & D - the Mining and Mineral Laboratories and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council - spent a total of $17 million in 2004-05.

The bulletin said R&D expenditures by mining and mineral-processing companies were expected to be $538 million in 2006.

However, industry leaders say mining is enjoying a supercycle that needs more R&D funding for green technologies in order to sustain itself.

Although the industry is booming as a result of high commodity prices, no new major discoveries have been made in recent years.

McPhie says the absence of a comprehensive plan is an "impediment" to mining companies that want to develop and use new, more environmentally friendly technologies.

"I think the government should have a national strategy, just like with new-economy stuff," says McPhie. "Look at our primary-resource base industries and find ways that you could work with them. To me, that would leave room for forward thinking - and it's not happening."

Jon Baird, managing director of the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE) and a vice-president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, says the country needs "far better co-ordination" of the R&D capability it already has.

"There are many silos of innovation and commercialization expertise all across Canada - and there is no national purpose," says Baird, whose group represents 280 mining equipment companies.

He says research centres and programs scattered across the country need to be unified to help the Canadian mining industry capitalize on its strong global presence.

"We're too fragmented," says Baird. "What we need is something that will bring the fragments together."

Since Canadians are working on 3,500 mine and exploration projects in 100 other countries, and an equal number of projects at home, technology developed in Canada could be exported abroad, Baird believes.

As a result, he's calling for an integrated mining-technology marketing program as well as united effort on innovation and commercialization that would be led by the National Research Council.

"The federal government doesn't seem to want to take the lead in any of these issues," says Baird. "Hopefully, it's going to change sometime, but it's really been a difficult struggle.

"We may be making more headway on the innovation (and) commercialization side (than marketing.) But so far, we're far from having anything put in place."

Some mining industry leaders, researchers and government officials have started to discuss ways to launch a national mining technology R&D organization. Baird was scheduled to attend a recent meeting in Toronto for an ad hoc group that he describes as a Canadian mining innovation council.

He says a previous meeting, held in Montreal last fall, drew representatives from all parts of the industry as well as researchers. It was led by a university professor and federal civil servant whom he declines to identify because the group had not made its efforts public.

He says Canada is trailing countries, including Australia, on an integrated approach. Australia is aiming to export $6 billion worth of mining equipment and services by 2010. Baird, whose group receives five per cent of its $1.25-$1.5 million budget through federal funding, says a national strategy would boost foreign investment in Canadian technologies, acknowledge that Canadian outbound investment in mining is beneficial, encourage the use of Canadian mining products and services, and attract students and workers at a time when Canada's mining industry faces a labour-supply crisis.

He says a co-ordinated approach can produce technologies that ensure the mining industry conducts its activities in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. "We want to be able to dig up other people's backyards," says Baird.

Kevin Krueger, B.C.'s minister of state for mining, says he welcomes a joint federal-provincial strategy.

"We always believe that collaboration between the elected governments across Canada is a good idea, and that it makes a lot of sense to partner up on (financial) resources," he says.

B.C. is one province that could benefit largely from increased federal R&D funding. Canada's western province accounts for more than half of all new mine projects under development across the country. But Krueger rejects McPhie's contention that the province isn't doing enough financially to assist the development of new technologies.

He points to such examples as a $25-million provincial contribution to Geoscience BC. The industry-led organization encourages investment in mineral exploration and petroleum investment by providing applied geoscience, including new data and new technologies, and updates on existing data and technologies.

The Calgary-based Coal Association of Canada also endorses the call for a federal-provincial mining-technology strategy.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)