Seventy-five years old and still going strong as ever. The annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, which got under way Sunday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, is expecting to see almost 18,000 participants. Like the price of many of the metals its members are searching for, this is a new record high.
The organization was first founded in 1932, early in the Great
Depression in order to fight some new provincial government
regulation that was detrimental for struggling prospectors.
Copper was then selling at four cents a pound (US), nickel was
about 35 cents per pound, and gold could be bought for $20.67
per ounce. How things change and how they stay the same.
The March convention is the world's premiere event for mineral
exploration and development professionals. These include
representatives of major and small to medium-sized junior
exploration and mining companies, technical experts, government
officials, prospectors, and mine financiers and investors, just
to name a few of the participants.
This is the largest and sometimes one of the most
"hard-drinking" and notorious conventions in Toronto. Twenty
years ago, when it was still held at the Royal York Hotel, a
mining promoter was murdered by an angry creditor. The longest
reigning PDAC president, Viola MacMillan, was charged with
insider trading during the infamous Windfall Scandal of
1964.
MacMillan served seven weeks in jail before being released on
parole. Many feel she was a scapegoat and was eventually
cleared of all charges. She is now in the Canadian Mining Hall
of Fame.
In 1997, Bre-X Minerals chief geologist, John Felderhof, was
presented with the Prospector of the Year Award for the
discovery of the Busang gold deposit in Indonesia. He gave it
back once the scandal exploded.
As a mining geology student at the University of Toronto in
1957, Ed Thompson was first enticed to attend a PDAC convention
with the promise of free beer. Over the years, he has been on
numerous committees, as well as serving as president during
1977-78.
"There have been many changes during the past 50 years,"
Thompson says. "The most significant change, of course, is the
size of the PDAC. In the late 1950s, it was an Ontario-based
organization and now, I am proud to say, we are an
international event with almost 100 participating countries. I
was just talking with the Nigerian mines minister who was
telling me of her efforts to encourage more Canadian
exploration companies to come to her county."
Thompson continues, "The other significant change was the
establishment of the Investors Exchange. This broadened the
PDAC from a technical gathering to an investors forum. It
allowed the average shareholder in a junior mining company to
come talk to the president and find out first-hand what was
going on."
The Investors Exchange was established in 1994 and is composed
of about 500 mineral exploration companies that gather under
one roof to promote their projects.
It has helped educate the average investor about the junior
mining sector and this part of the convention is free to the
general public.
One of those junior exploration companies is Crowflight
Minerals Inc. Tom Atkins, president and CEO, says, "As a
company that must be in touch with suppliers, investors and
financiers, the PDAC is the best venue in the world. In the
course of three days, I get a chance to talk to hundreds of
people."
Crowflight Minerals is a little unusual in that it is currently
constructing an underground mine at Bucko Lake, near Wabowden,
in northern Manitoba. Many junior exploration companies
commonly sell their discoveries to a larger mining company for
development.
Crowflight has the second-largest land position in the Thompson
Nickel Belt.  Once its operations start production, it
will only be the second mining company operating in the
Thompson Belt after CVRD Inco.  Crowflight also has a few
other promising deposits in the region.
Increasingly, global players in the mining sector are including
the Sudbury Basin on their Canadian itinerary after the PDAC
convention. South African Premier B.E.E. Molewa, of the
North-West province, is including Sudbury on her Canadian
visit. In a brief conversation, she highlighted Sudbury's
growing and dynamic supply and services sector and its
environmental rehabilitation successes, as two of the many
reasons for her visit.
The North-West provincial government is creating a new mining
service suppliers business park. In addition,  Molewa will
be visiting Science North and Dynamic Earth as she wants to
build similar tourist attractions in her province highlighting
the history and importance of platinum mining.
Fifty percent of the world's platinum group metals (PGMs) are
mined in South Africa's North-West Province. The Sudbury Basin
is the third-largest global producer of PGMs, a byproduct of
the nickel-copper ores. The federal South African mines
minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, will also be accompanying this
government delegation.
A Brazilian delegation is also heading to Sudbury, and will be
giving presentations to a gathering of local supply and service
companies on potential business opportunities in that country's
booming mining sector.
This year's Prospector of the Year Award went to Northern
Dynasty Minerals Ltd. for its discovery in 2005 of the Pebble
East porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in southwestern
Alaska. Once developed, the deposit will be in production for
about 30 years at the very least.
Members of the exploration team who will be accepting this
award are: David Gaunt, resources manager; Robert Dickinson,
executive chairman; Ronald Thiessen, president and CEO; John
Payne, senior geologist; and Mark Rebagliati, international
exploration manager.  Rebagliati is the father of Ross
Rebagliati, the Olympic snowboarder who almost lost his gold
metal after testing positive for marijuana.
For over 75 years, the PDAC has played an integral part in the
development of this country's mining sector and helped turn
Canada into a global mining powerhouse.
They certainly deserve to party this year, no matter what they
drink or inhale.
Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and policy analyst who writes a column on mining issues.[email protected]