With many of the world’s leading mining experts in Toronto for the annual Prospector’s & Developers Association of Canada Conference (PDAC), TSX Group and Standard & Poor’s today announced plans to create the S&P/TSX global mining index.

“Our exchanges have become the world’s leading markets for raising equity capital for mining and as a result we attract numerous international mining participants,” said Richard Nadeau, senior vp, Toronto Stock Exchange. “There is great value for mining issuers in a TSX listing. Mining issuers that list here tap into deep capital pools and extensive mining expertise from analysts, professional advisors like lawyers and engineers, investment bankers, to investors.” He added, “the launch of the S&P/TSX global mining index further enhances our position as the global mining exchange.”

TSX Group’s exchanges are home to approximately 60% of the world’s public mining companies and Canada has the world’s largest mining analyst community that covers issuers on both TSX and TSX Venture Exchange.

Similar to the S&P/TSX global gold index but with a broader scope in terms of the types of miners to be included, the global mining index will track leading international mining issuers. The exposure to this index will help further recognize the value of listing on TSX. In addition to bringing additional liquidity to mining listed issuers, it is expected structured products will also be created to serve investors in the markets.

Further details and a list of issuers to be included in the new index will be released by Standard & Poor’s prior to an expected launch in June 2007.

“With commodity prices strong and increased interest in this asset class, real-time information on global mining issues is critical,” said Steve Rive, vp of Canadian index operations at Standard & Poor’s. “Building on the success so far of the S&P/TSX global gold index, we believe the S&P/TSX global mining index will be a broad representative of opportunities available in the global mining marketplace.”

Mining companies from around the globe continue to come to TSX Group exchanges. In 2006, a total of 112 new mining companies listed on the exchanges. In aggregate, these new listings represented $15 billion in market capitalization.

The TSX’s mining sector is home to 1,274 listed mining companies with a quoted market value of over $322 billion.