New mines minister to speak at March convention of PDAC

The convention is set for March 5-8 at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel.

Epp, who replaced Marcel Masse at the resources post in the recent cabinet shuffle, will attend the Monday night awards banquet as the head table guest of honor.

The Canadian mining scene has been an active one the past few years and the industry is hoping its busy ways will continue. Focusing on all the mining activity, the PDAC has chosen as its theme “Canadian mineral discoveries: maintaining the momentum” for its 1989 convention.

The PDAC set a record for attendance in 1988 when about 4,300 delegates registered, and according to PDAC officials, this year’s get- together should draw about the same number.

Featured speaker at the Monday luncheon will be D. W. Strangway, the former head of the department of geophysics at the University of Toronto who now serves as president of the University of British Columbia. And, giving the address at the Wednesday luncheon will be William Gatenby, chief executive officer of giant Saskatchewan uranium producer Cameco.

Addressing the topic “multiple land use — cultivating citizen supporters” at the late Tuesday afternoon session will be Ron Arnold, consultant for the Centre for Defence of Free Enterprise and a former director of the Sierra Club, the international environmental lobby group.

The keynote session Monday morning will deal with a number of topics, including the new Canadian Exploration Incentive Program and its effect on exploration funding, and trends in exploration for precious and base metals. The Monday afternoon session will feature a number of talks on exploration and the environment.

Scheduled for Thursday morning is a special workshop dealing with base metals exploration in Canada, the session to be sponsored by the Geological Survey of Canada in co-operation with the PDAC and the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

Included in the festivities again this year is the annual hockey game (the match was cancelled last year) between the Prospectors All-Stars and Te ck Terrifics, set for Tuesday night at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Entertainment includes the Kilborn Engineering reception Sunday night, the awards banquet and dance Monday night, the Kirkland Lake Night on Tuesday, and the Pat Sheridan reception and “Laughs and Shafts” dinner and dance Wednesday night featuring the Royal Canadian Air Farce and vocal group The Synthetics, and the dance group The Tourists.

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