The Conversation: AME CEO Keerit Jutla talks about the underlying potential of B.C.’s mining industry

Keerit Jutla was appointed in September of last year as CEO of the Vancouver-based Association for Mineral Exploration (AME). He is the first visible minority CEO of the organization, which has been active since 1912. Jutla has experience both as a lawyer practicing in natural resource matters and as a senior negotiation lead for the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. We met at AME’s Downtown Vancouver office to talk about the role mining plays in the province today.  

Maybe you can start by explaining what exactly AME does, because I think there might be misconceptions out there from people who aren’t in the mining industry.

For sure. When I first came in and would talk about what I did, a lot of people thought that AME was an arm of government, and that we were implementing or echoing what government said. But no, we’re a member-driven organization with over 5,000 members that represents the interests of mineral explorers and prospectors in or based in B.C. That can range from a prospector who will go onto the land and do non-invasive exploration of the rocks to a big mining company. The question is, how do we advance the mining and mineral exploration industry in a way that not only champions reconciliation and environmental stewardship but also keeps the industry competitive and economically viable? We get involved in policy discussions with governments and relationship building and joint initiatives with Indigenous people here in B.C. And we’re involved in capital markets work and talking to different investors worldwide to really champion B.C.

So, the way it looks to me is that you were working for the government on the mining side. And then the association saw the work you were doing and said, “Oh, we can have that guy on our side.” And now you’re taking your old employer to task on some things. Is that correct?

[Laughs] Well, for me, I was looking for that great opportunity. I’m passionate about generating and building solutions and bringing people together. But doing it in the right way. Something that’s key in the work I’ve done in my time practicing law and in government is that we are all going toward that direction of reconciliation and an environmentally stable natural resource economy. The question is how fast people want to go there and how we’re going to do it in a way that is pursuant to good governance and good engagement. Not only with industry, but with Indigenous people as well. Sometimes you have to walk before you can run or sprint.

Are we going there too fast right now?

Seeing the huge influx of policy items, legislative items and goals that have come out in the last eight months—as a member explained to me, he’s never seen anything like this in 19 years. When you’re presented with something and you’re asked, “Hey, is this good? Let me present it to your members.” If I present you with a box with nothing in it, that doesn’t mean we can’t build it so there’s something in there, but what I’ve seen and what we’ve identified is that there are a lot of questions and a lot of processes that aren’t identified. The Lands Act amendments, for instance: when we asked about it, the math wasn’t there. The positive intent wasn’t there. How do decisions get made? How is it pursuant to constitutional law? All of those things weren’t there. The bureaucracy in government, they do great work, they’re trying to develop solutions as well. And they’re subject to a lot of the same pressures of an election coming up. People want many glimmering things on their resume. If we all collectively say, let’s take a breath and get everything right, that’s a good approach. There are some key questions that we’ve posed.

You mentioned the Lands Act amendments, which would have given more decision-making power over Crown land to Indigenous groups. It was scrapped earlier this year. But I imagine you’re also talking about the court-mandated Mineral Tenure Act Modernization that was spurred in September of last year and expands the role of First Nations decision-making in mining projects. Do you feel like you and your members are being fully heard on that front?

I think we’re starting to be acknowledged a bit more. Whether or not we’re being fully heard is yet to be determined. And why I say that is because there are certain ways that the industry works, and you can be talking to different policymakers who are influential and have an opinion on mineral exploration or mining but can’t articulate how the system works—say, they think that if you stake a claim that means you can have a mine. When they’re the ones building or advising on policy, that’s concerning. When we present solutions and say, “Hey, here’s literally what’s achievable; we want to build solutions, but this might be a bridge too far,” that’s when we’ll know if we’re being heard. It was really important that AME did our own MTA engagement process just to ensure that all the different nuances of the membership were heard. We didn’t do it arbitrarily.

What do you think BCers believe about your industry, and how much of that is right and how much might be a bit misguided?

I saw a report that showed that 80 percent of Canadians support the mining and mineral exploration industry and even have a favourable view on it. I think here in B.C., there are certain groups and interests that want to keep perpetuating that mining and mineral exploration are dirty, which is totally wrong. B.C. has one of the highest—if not the highest—environmental regulatory standards on the planet. It has one of the best consultation frameworks. I think the key thing for us is to ask if we are we championing that while also talking about the things we need to improve on. I think the average BCer doesn’t know enough about the industry and might just see what’s being represented by advocacy groups.

B.C. obviously has regulations here that are tight, but it also has so many companies that mine overseas and you sometimes hear about negative things that are happening there. Is that part of what is influencing people?

I think one of the things for any industry or endeavour is that once something happens that might be far removed, or mischaracterized, it paints everything with that whole brush. That’s a wrong way to look at things. The overwhelming majority of our members, especially the junior miners and the prospectors, are doing it right and they’ve been doing it right for a long time. They don’t have huge budgets. When I talk to them and they say, “I’m doing this right, but people are saying I’m dirty or doing it wrong,” that’s unfortunate. We in B.C. and Canada should be proud that we have an amazing mining and mineral exploration industry.

How much does the climate transition play into this? The industry doesn’t necessarily lend itself to climate change. What is it doing to move forward in that area?

Well, sustainable practices are essential in mineral exploration and mining. The key thing we’ve seen here is a respect and desire to look at it and encompass, for example, Indigenous knowledge and traditions with respect to environmental, water and stewardship and also looking at how that works with moving a project forward—how do you balance both? If we want a low-carbon future and want things like lithium batteries, where are we going to get them? It’s wonderful that the federal government invested a bunch of money into a battery plant, and that the provincial government invested money into critical mineral strategy. Now the question is: are we good to go explore for those things? We have the best practices, we can get those minerals into those plants. Solar panels, EV batteries, gold needed for the proper conductors—we have all of that here and the amazing environmental regulatory and -consultation regime and using the DRIPA [Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act] principles to inform some of those items. There’s absolutely a strong focus on environmental sustainability, and investors around the world see that. We have to do a better job of championing that, but also we can’t reinvent the wheel in terms of us already being one of the top places to do it.

Do you think we’re the global capital of mining?

We can be, absolutely. But the more we oversaturate our regulatory regime with ambiguous, not well-defined law that tries to substitute already amazing law, investors look at it like, “What’s going on there? Is there a method to all of this?” When you see laws coming out that circumvent judicial principles or administrative law principles or constitutional law principles, investors look at that. And I think the hard conversations we’ve been having with government are intended to say, look, there’s a clear desire to have these different types of code development or consensus-based structures. But we have to do it right. No matter how self-righteous your cause may be, it doesn’t justify circumventing key legal and governance principles; it’s the ends and means type of thing. We can and should be a critical mineral and energy leader, and AME has developed strong partnerships with Western allies who are looking to Canada to be that.

Many might consider mining to be an old boys’ network. Before you, for instance, AME has only ever had white presidents and CEOs, most of them men. Have you experienced any racism or discrimination in the industry?

I personally have not. The only questions I’ve been asked have been, “Okay, we’ve seen you have done work for the government and First Nations. Are you here to promote the well-being of the industry?” And my clear response has been that I want to advance our natural resource economy and do it in a way that encompasses competitiveness and economic advantages and that takes into account reconciliation and environmentally sustainable paths. We’re all in this together. I feel so proud to be the first visible minority CEO of AME and being here on my merits, and I think the membership sees that and sees me putting in the work. I’m truly seeing in a positive way what that amazing fabric of B.C. and Canada is. You have so many people who are from Punjabi backgrounds, Asian backgrounds, LGBTQ communities, women in mining—the mining family isn’t just if you’ve gone up on a site for two weeks, it’s all of us who have been around this industry. And that diversity of faces doesn’t mean “different”—it’s collaborative.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Quick Hits

Hobby

Soccer (playing and watching—Glory Glory Man United), video games (current is Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) and spending time with my wife and our pup Rooney

Pet peeve

Food-stealing seagulls on Granville Island (you owe me a plate of fish and chips)

Guilty pleasure

Karaoke (Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey) 

Favourite place in B.C.

My mother-in-law’s backyard garden in Sooke

Favourite local business

Any business that gives my dog treats (she wrote this answer)

Current TV/podcast binge

Derry Girls/Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend

Most memorable concert

Foo Fighters, Toronto 2006 (thanks Ty!)

Last book you read

An Accidental Advocate by Lembi Buchanan (an amazing story of how any one of us can be a hero)