EDITORIAL — Much to celebrate at 1998’s PDAC convention — Down… but not out

Canadian juniors were on top of the world a year ago, basking in a string of exploration successes. In the span of a decade, they had found gold-silver grades in triple digits at Eskay Creek in northern British Columbia, hit eye-popping nickel-copper-cobalt values at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador, and pioneered modern-day exploration booms all over the globe.

They made diamonds sparkle in the Northwest Territories, revived Quebec’s Valley of Gold with an important base-metal discovery, and had the big boys shelling out billions of dollars for enormous finds in Chile and Peru.

Last year, Canadian juniors had the world — heck, even the world’s largest gold deposit — by the tail. They were everywhere ahead of everyone else, with budgets bigger than Texas. The Australians began to worry that Canadians had replaced them as God’s gift to the mining world, while the stiff-upper-lip Brits wondered how the colonial village of Toronto had surpassed London as the mining finance centre of the world.

Euphoria was in full flower last March when the industry gathered in Toronto for the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, an annual event meant to celebrate and share industry achievements, as well as relieve cabin fever. But all was not well behind the scenes. As one industry observer said, “the Toronto Convention Centre should have been flying one big red flag last year.”

A few days after John “Find Your Own Gold” Felderhof carted off his award for Prospector of the Year, his “one-of-a-kind-in-the-world” Busang discovery was exposed as the gold scam of the century. There has been much wailing and “Walshing” of teeth since then, and much soul-searching, as the industry struggles to survive under the dark shadow of mistrust cast by the infamous Bre-X Minerals.

The media has poked fun at the industry’s gullibility, and put the spotlight on a few other scandals that came to light during the past year. As unpleasant as all that was, the industry responded by launching a serious effort to clean house, aided by regulatory agencies and leaders from the investment industry. Low metal prices and other economic factors then kicked in, weeding out some of the poorer-quality juniors, which found themselves unable to raise money and out of the game.

There may be fewer juniors at this year’s PDAC convention, fewer deals done than in years gone by and a few less delegates now that Michael de Guzman and his team of innovative geologists are, as they say, unavailable for comment. But there will be plenty to celebrate, because, with the exception of Bre-X’s bogus find, all the discoveries named above have become important mines, or are poised to go into production in the next year or two.

Eskay Creek is a jewelbox of a mine, and jewels of another sort will soon be pouring from Etaki, Canada’s first diamond mine, now in the construction phase. Voisey’s Bay is a case study showing how important prospectors still are to the industry, while the Louvicourt mine provides solid proof that historic mining camps, such as Val d’Or, are worth a second look.

The Canadian mining industry has much to be proud of and, therefore, much to celebrate at this year’s PDAC convention. Granted, the industry is riddled with optimists more susceptible than most to a good story. That geologists, promoters and many investors have this predilection should be no surprise, for who else would place bets in a game with odds of 1,000-to-1? In the face of these odds, the discoveries made by both juniors and majors are triumphs of spirit worth celebrating. Together, they constitute a bedrock of accomplishment that a few black sheep should not be allowed to undermine.