I never thought I would be so excited about hearing about cement but, yes, I'm really happy to hear that there is that potential. And it is my understanding that not only could it be used for basic cement products but that it is also such a high grade that there's other really sort of niche applications for some of our sand. So I think that's awesome, and I am excited to look into that or get more information on that as it progresses. And thank you for answering what the other portion of that money or that increase was for, because that was going to be my next question. So I appreciate that.
I just wanted to ask a little bit about the Chamber of Mines. And so I know that the Minister explained that the $55,000 supports various activities. Given that mining plays such a huge part in our industry, and pretty much is our industry as I said earlier in my reply to the budget address, besides the government itself, you know, and given that tourism, which is such a small portion of our industry gets such a huge investment of millions of millions of dollars, it's actually quite shameful to me that we only provide the Chamber of Mines with $55,000.
Recently, we attended the geoscience forum. There was a lot of excitement for that to be in-person once again, however, it was apparent that the chamber is struggling to meet the demands of the industry and to do the correct lobbying that such an important industry and contributor to our GDP would require. And I don't get that difference between why tourism is getting such a -- if we go to -- when we get to the next pages, I think it's, like $6 million and the Chamber of Mines is only getting $55,000. Can the Minister speak to whether there's a plan to increase funding to the Chamber of Mines? Thank you.