Gold takes centre-stage at Cordilleran

Vancouver — Enthusiasm for gold prevailed at the recent Cordilleran Roundup, held at this city’s Westin Bayshore Resort and Marina.

About 3,000 delegates and 150 exhibitors attended the 5-day event, where close to 100 technical posters were on display. Highlights included short courses on diamonds and gold.

The theme of this, the 20th annual conference was “20/20: Then and Now,” with an emphasis on key discoveries and trends of the past 20 years.

The junior mining market has witnessed four cycles during the past two decades, according to John Brock, president of Vancouver-based Badger & Co. Management, who delivered a well-attended talk.

He said the sector was bullish for 114 months and bearish for 126 months, and that real wealth generated by mineral discoveries exceeded total risk capital by a factor of 10. The bear market from which the industry is now emerging is both the longest (72 months) and the worst on record, he said, and risk capital has been difficult to raise as a result.

Another speaker was Teck Cominco Chairman Norman Keevil, who reversed Brock’s perspective by looking ahead 20 years.

He predicted metal consumption will increase and that low-cost mines will be discovered in comparatively under-explored areas, such as China, Mongolia, Russia and Iran. He added that new metal sources will likely come from low-grade deposits that become economic through improvements in processing and mining technology.

Gold dominated the various talks and papers presented at the conference, with special emphasis given to Red Lake in Ontario, Botwood Basin in Newfoundland, and China and Mongolia.

One of the technical sessions was devoted to northern Canadian regions, including Ungava in Quebec and Ferguson Lake in Nunavut, while another looked at exploration in other countries, among them Russia, Turkey, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

At the Diamond session, Diavik Diamond Mines provided an update on developments at Canada’s newest diamond mine, while representatives of other companies shed light on the Coronation district, the Otish Mountains, and Victoria Island.

At a session devoted to mining on the west coast, delegates learned that the total value of mineral production in British Columbia in 2002 was $2.84 billion. Coal accounted for 37.6% of that total; copper, for 21.3%. Also, an estimated $40 million was spent on exploration in the province last year, up 25% over 2001, and claim-staking there increased 6%, year over year.

At an information session, the Klondike Placer Miners Association gathered to express its opposition to a plan, introduced by the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to phase out placer mining in the Yukon.

Under the federal initiative, more than half the Yukon’s family-owned placer gold operations would be forced to shut down as a result of their inability to meet stringent new standards. Placer mining contributes more than $50 million per year to the Yukon economy and is the territory’s second-largest industry, after tourism.

The fisheries minister has cited the need to increase protection of fisheries and fish habitat, though a growing number of researchers insist that placer mining has no long-term negative effects.

Said Tara Christie, president of the Klondike Placer Miner’s Association: “We know that the minister doesn’t understand the full implications for families here in the north or for the Yukon’s already ravaged economy. We want to sit down with him and discuss, in a rational and reasonable way, how we can meet his needs without destroying our industry and our livelihood.”