Delegates enjoy PDAC convention events

An expected shakeout in the exploration business appeared to have little effect on the level of interest in this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention in Toronto. More than 3,000 visitors, including delegates and their guests, converged on the Royal York Hotel March 11-14 to share industry gossip and hear about discoveries that have made headlines recently.

As usual, the 900 rooms set aside for the event were booked. Many visitors were prepared to pay $550 a night for the privilege of entertaining their colleagues in one of the Royal York’s large suites.

Aware that they can no longer rely on government-backed incentives — at least outside Quebec — convention organizers concentrated on preparing delegates for “the new realities” that could drive some of the membership out of the exploration business entirely.

At a panel discussion involving mining developers and environmental activists, World Wildlife Fund Canada President Monte Hummel said he wanted 12% of Canada’s land mass set aside for conservation.

Minutes later in a luncheon speech titled “The Globalization of the Mining and Exploration Business,” Dr. Klaus Zeitler, president of Metall Mining (TSE), told the audience that Canadians should be active in underdeveloped countries where the geology is attractive.

“There is no question that we will see a significant diversion of exploration funds to such countries in the coming years,” he said. CMP Funds Management President Jean- Guy Masse was also on hand to tell analysts and industry executives that without the recently cancelled Canadian Exploration Incentive Program, mineral expenditures should drop to about $425 million next year, a level not seen since 1979.

“If this trend is not corrected, the mining industry will certainly decline to a fraction of its current size, probably by the turn of the century,” said Masse.

But if the overall outlook appears to be less than comforting, there was plenty of evidence that given the money, Canadian exploration teams can beat the bushes and come up with new mineral deposits.

As usual, the companies with significant discoveries received most of the attention at a convention that remains the premier social event on the Canadian mining calendar. Visitors stood toe to toe in an effort to examine drill core at Prime Resources’ (VSE) booth where samples from the Eskay Creek gold find in British Columbia were on display.

Geologists manning the Aur Resources (TSE) and Corona (TSE) display were also busy answering questions about the Louvicourt Twp. massive sulphide discovery and Mings Bight gold project in Newfoundland.

The only notable absentees this year appeared to be longtime PDAC supporter Viola MacMillan due to health reasons and flamboyant promoter Murray Pezim who was rumored to be lying low and was unreachable by phone at his home in Vancouver. Nevertheless, a new biography of “the Pez” titled “Tales of a Promoter” was on sale at the convention for $20 a copy.

In Pezim’s absence, Newfoundland Mines Minister Rex Gibbons gave the awards night audience a lesson in what he called “good old- fashioned promoting,” as he touted the potential of his province while presenting Aur President Jim Gill and Vice-President Howard Stockford with the 1989 Prospector of the Year award.

Knowing glances were exchanged among the audience when Stockford pointed out that flow- through-share financing had enabled Aur to complete as much as 450,000 ft. of drilling at Louvicourt Twp. “This proves that flow through can and does produce deposits,” he said.

Upstairs in the hotel suites, after the awards banquet on Monday evening was over, Teck (TSE) Chairman Norman Keevil Jr. discussed the legal battle between Aur and partner Societe Miniere Louvem (TSE) for control of the Louvicourt Twp. base metal discovery in Val d’Or, Que.

Keevil said his company, which together with Cominco (TSE), owns 21% of Aur, had invested in the discovery because of an upside potential that has still to be determined. Ironically, Noranda (TSE), through wholly owned Noranda Minerals, bought 21% of Louvem for similar reasons. Asked who he thinks will win the lawsuit, Keevil replied: “We think we have the edge on this one.”

About 100 yards further west in the Minnova (TSE) suite, Noranda group sales manager Yvonne Murphy was predicting that gold producers would be lucky if the price of gold reaches US$450 per oz. this year.

A number of other companies, including Imperial Metals (TSE), were showing video screenings of their projects to anyone who was prepared to take time out from their conversations to watch.

It was Concordia University geology student Tania Heaton who seemed to sum up the “new reality” that the Canadian exploration industry is facing in the early 1990s. Instead of looking for an exploration job with one of the many companies represented at the meeting, she is hoping to enter mining as environmental consultant. “That’s where the opportunities lie,” she said.