Editorial: Where discoveries begin

The team probing the “oddball” geology of a site 200 km from Las Vegas – which evokes the gambling nature of mining itself – first met at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention.  

A decade later, the AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU) team’s chief geologist, Paul Bartos, collected the PDAC Thayer Lindsley Discovery of the Year award last month in Toronto. Whether that’s serendipity, or just working as it’s supposed to, the world’s largest mining event again shows its relevance in connecting industry people and projects, cachet and capital.  

More visitors than ever before agreed: attendance topped 32,000, more than 1,300 exhibitors took part, and our editorial team gathered from afar. Adrian Pocobelli flew in from Paris to start our first daily podcasts at the event. Henry Lazenby travelled from Vancouver and Frédéric Tomesco from Montreal to join Blair McBride and me in Toronto.  

A highlight was Blair’s surprise, in-person exclusive interview with former Resolute Mining CEO Terry Holohan. “Terry shared some of the nerve-wracking details of his 13-day detention by soldiers in Mali,” Blair said. “Despite his difficult time, he was friendly and upbeat, eager to get busy on his next adventure leading BG Gold in Canada’s Arctic.”

Frédéric heard the urgency behind industry favourite copper from the CEO of giant Vale, and the push from panellists to get the red metal refined in the West, even from a group suggesting former paper mills could play a part.

Podcast first 

We didn’t have room in this print issue for all the PDAC coverage that appeared online. There, you can find Adrian’s podcasts with guests such as Audrey Robertson, the Assistant Secretary in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation; David Prodger, the UK Deputy High Commissioner to Canada; and Abdulrahman Al Belushi, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Mineral Resources Management.  

There are also nearly 50 videos online after guests sat down with Henry and Northern Miner Group video anchor Devan Murugan. “There was a noticeable sense that The Northern Miner had become one of the places to be seen and heard during PDAC,” Devan said.  

That social angle drove great events throughout the week, including Gold & Silver Night at Ripley’s Aquarium, where the Miner team did its version of Hunter Thompson’s The Great Shark Hunt. See photo.  

Positive vibe 

There was a general sense of optimism at PDAC, if tempered somewhat since the backdrop is always the anxiety of trying to score deals. The positivity was widespread because governments around the world are latching onto mining as the way forward.  

Miners were upbeat at announcements by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Minister Stephen Lecce and federal Minister Tim Hodgson. Counterparts at an Argentina panel I moderated, Daniel González, Secretary for the Coordination of Natural Resources, and Luis E. Lucero, Secretary of Mining, drew a standing-room-only crowd.  

Latin America is this month’s theme, and we were able to tuck some stories on that around the edges of PDAC, starting with the political trend sweeping across the region that’s likely to lift projects. Elections seem to have brought in a swath of potentially the right players for the industry. Balancing ambition with the environmental concerns that dominate these nations will be a key to success.  

What the Nevada discovery shows is that mining still works the way it always has, through people meeting, testing ideas and finding capital. The odds often look long at the outset, and the timelines even longer, but the system still produces results, whether in Nevada or across emerging opportunities in Latin America.  

PDAC is a showcase, but it’s even stronger as a starting point. A future Thayer Lindsley winner was likely discussed in a hallway or over coffee. This year’s was.