Judging by the attendance at this week’s Sprott Stansberry Resource Symposium in Vancouver, rumours of the impending death of investment in mining are greatly exaggerated.
Resource World Magazine publisher Ellsworth Dickson said it was easy to see why 600 "guests" were prepared to cough up between US$399 and US$799 to buy a conference ticket.
“We are seeing world class speakers and high class companies. These are not pump and dumps,” Dickson said.
In spite of the challenging investment environment, organizers said 55 exhibitors paid US$6,000 each to take booth space on the Hotel Vancouver's convention floor.
The list included high profile names like Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX: V.FCU, Stock Forum), Lundin Mining Corp. (TSX: T.LUN, Stock Forum), and Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX: T.NSU, Stock Forum).
“These are companies that will survive the downturn,” said Millrock Resources Inc. (TSX: V.MRO, Stock Forum) Chief Executive Officer Greg Beischer. “Their shares will go higher when the recovery comes,’’ he said.
Beischer said the cost of exhibition floor space was a small price to pay for the opportunity to rub shoulders with the likes of Robert Friedland, the international financier and Ivanhoe MinesLtd. (TSX: T.IVN, Stock Forum) Executive Chairman who was among the speakers on the first day of the conference.
“It’s a privilege to be here,’’ Beischer said.
During a question and answer session with Sprott U.S. Holdings Inc. Chairman Rick Rule, Friedland advised the audience not to be too concerned about this week’s selloff in Shanghai.
“It is definitely not 1929 in China. The Chinese economy will continue to grow,’’ he said.
Friedland reminded the audience that mining is a lot like building super tankers. It takes a lot of capital and investors need to be patient.
It is a challenge that is faced by the likes of Kaminak Gold Corp. (TSX: V.KAM, Stock Forum), which is working to develop the Coffee Gold Project in the Canadian Yukon, at a potential cost of around $300 million.
During an interview with Stockhouse, Kaminak CEO Eira Thomas said Coffee marks something new for the Yukon mining sector as the project is predicated on a structurally hosted hythrothermal gold system.
Subject to the completion of a feasibility study, the company is hoping to keep costs low by using heap leach mining methods. Thomas said she is not at all concerned about the lacklustre gold price which is trading at US$1,095.20 an ounce this week, down from the US$1,300 in January.
“This is a project that works in a challenging gold price environment,’’ she said.
For that reason, Thomas is confident that Kaminak will be able to secure the funding it needs to put the Coffee project into production.
Adrian Day, Chairman and CEO of Adrian Day Asset Management said he hoped conference attendees will not have long to wait for a rebound in the sector.
“Sentiment has become so overwhelmingly bearish, we must be close to the [cyclical bottom],’’ he said.
Day said stocks are so beaten down that any change in market sentiment likely result in a 5-fold increase in the share valuations of some of the companies taking booth space at this weeks' symposium.
He said that would include the likes of Reservoir Minerals Inc. (TSX: V.RMC, Stock Forum) which is developing a portfolio of projects in Serbia and Africa. He said it may also be true for Evrim Resources Corp. (TSX: V.EVM, Stock Forum), a Mexico-focused prospect generator.
Day also likes the prospects for Lara Exploration Ltd. (TSX: V.LRA, Stock Forum), which is also following the prospect generator model and is active in Peru and Brazil.
Meanwhile, Scott Trebilcock, Chief Development Officer with Nevsun said he is not worried about the current downturn in the mining sector. “We are highly profitable at today’s metal prices,’’ he said.
When Stockhouse stopped at the Nevsun booth, Trebilcock said he couldn’t say whether the benefits of attending this week’s conference will justify the price of admission.
“Perhaps that has yet to be determined,’’ he said.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Millrock is a client of Stockhouse Publishing.