PDAC shatters attendance records

During the week ended March 8, the tenth trading week of 2008, there was no better way to soak in the enormity of the current mining boom than to push your way through the booths, auditoriums and hallways of the 76th annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto.

Settling into its new, expanded venue in the southern portion of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the four-day conference saw attendance soar to more than 20,000 people, up at least 14% over last year’s record 17,600, and up 300% from 2002. The number of booths in the Investor’s Exchange was up more than 50% to 650 — with potential exhibitors still being turned away — and the trade show expanded to 351 booths, up 24%.

“Overwhelming” was the most common adjective conventiongoers used to describe the ramped-up show.

• Northgate Minerals confirmed that the federal and B. C. governments had agreed with a federal-provincial environmental panel’s recommendation in September 2007 against the development of its large Kemess North expansion project, at the Kemess South gold-copper mine, in central B. C.

Northgate had already written off the full value of the project in its third quarter last year, and will now wind down mining at Kemess South within two or three years, instead of continuing mining operations to the north for another dozen years or more.

To add insult to injury for Northgate, members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 at the Kemess South mine have just rejected a tentative agreement struck on their behalf by their negotiators.

Northgate must be counting the days until it can shut its Vancouver office and finally quit a province that is once again turning against miners, to better focus on more hospitable jurisdictions like Ontario and Australia.

• The biggest M&A news came from Australia, where Oxiana and Zinifex unveiled a friendly merger of equals that will create a A$12- billion diversified miner based in Melbourne. Zinifex shareholders will receive 3.1931 Oxiana shares for every Zinifex share, resulting in former Zinifex shareholders owning 50% of the new, as yet unnamed company.

The new company will be the world’s second-largest zinc miner and a significant producer of copper, lead, gold and silver. It will have five operating mines in Australia and Asia, plus three new mines in development.

The pair’s only major North American assets are Zinifex’s advanced High Lake and Izok Lake zinc-copper projects in Nunavut, and some grassroots exploration projects in Mexico.

• In the banking sector, South Africa’s Standard Bank — a leading lender to mine developers in Africa — finalized its strategic partnership with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), the world’s largest bank by market capitalization. The ICBC now owns 20% of Standard Bank, after a US$5.5-billion cash infusion. Standard Bank says it’s now “well positioned to serve as a gateway to the growing trade and investment flows between China and Africa.” It adds that China is Africa’s third-largest trading partner, with trade between the two regions expected to increase to well over US$100 billion by 2010.

• Canada’s federal government had some more goodies for the mining industry in its latest budget unveiled in the last week of February. The temporary 15% mineral exploration tax credit (i. e. Canada’s flow-through share program) was extended another year, to March 31, 2009, and $34 million will be spent by the feds over the next two years to improve geological mapping.

• There was also some good news in the budget for Canadian travellers: beginning in 2011, the federal government will double the lifespan of a Canadian passport to 10 years, and add to it higher security electronic features.

Canada is also earmarking $14 million over the next two years to expand the joint Canada/United States NEXUS program, increasing the number of users to 350,000 from 160,000 and better targeting frequent travellers.

•We say a last goodbye to our retired publisher John Cooke, who passed away in hospital in Mississauga, Ont., on March 9. John is fondly remembered as a great boss and friend, and he will be sorely missed by family, friends and the mining industry he loved.

Send your Letters-to-the-Editor and other op-ed submissions to the Editor at: tnm@northernminer.com, fax: (416) 510-5137, or 12 Concorde Pl., Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2.