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The Government of Saskatchewan is expanding its Targeted Mineral Exploration Incentive (TMEI) to cover more early-stage exploration activities, in an effort to drive growth and investment in the province’s mining sector.
First launched in 2018, the TMEI provides grants to exploration companies that undertake eligible drilling work. The expansion will broaden the program to include ground-based and borehole geophysical surveys, along with key pre-sampling tasks like core logging. The province says these changes will help more companies, especially smaller ones, attract private capital to advance their projects.
"TMEI has been key to diversifying Saskatchewan's mining sector by promoting drilling on hard rock mineral exploration projects," Energy and Resources Minister Colleen Young said. "These changes will help us achieve our goals set out in Saskatchewan's Critical Minerals Strategy, specifically, increasing Saskatchewan's share of Canadian mineral exploration spending to 15 per cent and doubling the number of critical minerals produced in Saskatchewan, all by 2030."
The province says expanding the incentive will support new mineral discoveries and help diversify Saskatchewan’s mining output, which includes helium, lithium, copper and zinc, along with record production in uranium and potash.
"Expanding TMEI funding to include additional generative, early-stage exploration activities will help identify more drill targets, attracting greater investor interest and capital to Saskatchewan," Saskatchewan Mining Association President Pam Schwann said. "The collaborative partnership between government and industry exemplifies why Saskatchewan is a premier exploration and mining destination."
In the 2024-25 fiscal year, 27 exploration projects were approved for $1.9 million in TMEI funding, with companies spending $76.5 million in total on these projects. Since 2018, 96 projects have received $5.9 million through the program, resulting in 926 exploration drill holes and $172.5 million in total spending.
Saskatchewan is Canada’s largest primary producer of critical minerals, with 27 of the 34 minerals on the federal list found in the province. The government says stable incentive programs like the TMEI, combined with a predictable regulatory framework and abundant resources, make Saskatchewan one of the best places in the world for resource development.