PDAC 2019 Toronto – Day 2

Day 2 of the conference was a much busier day, as is the norm as the Bay St. market professionals arrive.

Booth holders I spoke to did not seem too happy about the lack of investors, most people walking around were in suits and ties are offering trades and services, and they were clearly in the majority.

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PDAC 2019 Toronto – Day 2

Day 2 of the conference was a much busier day, as is the norm as the Bay St. market professionals arrive.

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A bitterly cold morning justified the decision to stay as close to the conference as is humanly possible, less than 100 yards to the entrance door. That is still a log way when the temperature is around minus fifteen with the wind chill, especially waiting at the lights to cross the road for a couple of numbing minutes.

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Booth holders I spoke to did not seem too happy about the lack of investors, most people walking around in suits and ties are offering trades and services, and they were in the clear majority.

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Rumblings about the newly introduced admission charge being responsible for low investor numbers are surely off the mark?  What was previously fee now costs $23, but surely any serious investor won;t begrudge paying that to attend the largest mining conference in the world?

If anyone is not attending due to the entrance fee then that is ridiculous in my view, although I can understand thy may only attend one day rather than every day, in protest, as one Canadian I spoke to said he was doing.

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Interestngly enough I was told that cambridge House are introducing a $20 entry fee for their shows, so this looks to becoming the norm.  If te PDAC has 20,000 attendees as is usual, then 20,000 x CAD $23 equates to CAD $460,000, a tidy additional sum that goes some way towards compensating for the lower number of companies this year.

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I found some interesting new production or near production stories to look further into, and there were a lot fewer companies openly looking for financing this year. Maybe they were the stay aways?

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It will be interesting to see the attendance numbers and attendee mix on day 3.

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