Mining claims spiked in 2025 following Houston’s push for resource development
CBC
Prospectors staked claims around Nova Scotia in high numbers this year after Premier Tim Houston unveiled his new open-arms approach to natural resource development.
There’s a concentration of new claims in Cumberland County where two partnered startups are searching for “white” hydrogen. Another cluster is in Hants County, where multinational mining giant Rio Tinto is hoping to find copper.
The rush has some in the industry buzzing about the potential for new mining projects, but it will likely be years before commercial production happens on any of the newly claimed areas — if it happens at all.
An exploration licence — each consisting of up to 80 claims — grants the right to explore and test the land if the landowner agrees, or if the province gives a permit to access Crown land.
As of Dec. 10, the province had issued 814 licences, with several dozen more pending that could be issued before year’s end. That’s almost double the number of licences issued in 2024.
“It is a banner year,” said Bob Stewart, a veteran geologist based in Halifax.
Stewart keeps close tabs on mineral claims and has tracked them back to the mid-1970s. He said an uptick in 2022 was caused by a lithium rush when prices for that mineral surged, then things slowed over the next two years and popped up higher than he's ever seen in 2025.
He said there were several “pivotal” moments for mineral claims this year. The first was Houston saying in January that he intended to focus on natural resource development in his second mandate.
In March, two Canadian startups started buying licences in Cumberland County. John Karagiannidis is the driving force behind both companies — Quebec Innovative Materials Corp.(QIMC) and Q Precious & Battery Metals. He’s the president of the former, which is the largest shareholder of the latter.
Karagiannidis said he started exploring for “white” hydrogen, also known as natural or geologic hydrogen, in Quebec around 2021, and more recently started to consider Atlantic Canada. He narrowed in on Nova Scotia because of Houston’s natural resource ambitions, he said.
“The premier, he has a very big energy program in place … and that really encouraged us and pushed us towards Nova Scotia versus the other provinces,” said Karagiannidis.
Natural hydrogen is sought after as a “clean” energy source that doesn’t emit carbon when burned, and could be used to dilute or displace fossil fuels.
Karagiannidis said his company intends to start test drilling in February around West Advocate. Based on soil testing and geophysical surveys of land that follows a geologic fault system from West Advocate to Springhill, he’s “very confident” there’s naturally occurring hydrogen under the ground.
Exploiting that hydrogen at commercial levels is still theoretical, said David Risk, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at St. Francis Xavier University.
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