And shareholders are probably going to love that. Last night was the Integra Gold Rush Gala, held in the Carlu Concert Hall on Bay Street, and this awards night is undoubtedly going to be one of the statement events of this PDAC 2016. It was part fundraiser, and was sold out, which meant 400 attendees watched host Shawn Majumbder (of the CBC, but don’t tell him that he looks like Gian Ghomeshi) introduce the high powered judging panel and the 5 finalist teams.
Why would shareholders love this? Over the past year, this Gold Rush program has provided Integra Gold (
TSX: V.ICG,
Forum) with global brand penetration – teams from 75 different countries submitted proposals trying to win $500,000 for convincing Integra where to drill next. The company released 75 years of data (7 terabytes) to the public, and this opened the doors to approaches that ranged from mystics to machine learning.
Corporate support – Integra got strong corporate backing for this project, with a commitment from Macquarrie to match donations up to $100,000. They got 5 heavy hitters from the industry to sit on a Dragon’s Den-style panel to judge, including Rob McEwen, founder of Goldcorp Inc. and McEwen Mining Inc.; Sean Roosen, Chairman & CEO of Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd.; and Randy Smallwood, CEO of Silver Wheaton Corp. After every presentation, you could hear somebody on the panel growling about a “lead order”, and commenting that this will be a stock to watch.
Local and political support – it matters where your mining projects are, as geo politics can have a huge impact on predictability and site productivity. Integra’s property is in Quebec, and it is very clear that this company is an important part of the city of Val d’Or. The approximately $250,000 raised last night is going back to charities that community, and there was government representation from Val d’Or in attendance, plus both the provincial and Federal Minsters of Mining and Resource made an appearance.
Innovation – First, let’s look at a program that focuses the mining world on a small cap Canadian gold company that made for great exposure over the last year. On top of that, they had some of the brightest minds in prospecting pore over their data to help them prioritize their next exploration. Integra predicts that the new applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence that were brought into play on this contest are going to trigger the next wave of innovation for the entire mining sector.
The night was a brilliant showcase for this one company, and the presentations brought loud cheers. 80% of the judging weight was given to technical analysis beforehand, so when the final results were tallied, the crowd was vocal about some of their favorite presentations that didn’t win. Who did? The team from SGS Geostat – here is their pre-event team video:
https://www.geostat.com/genesis/en/videoGoldRush.php
Guy Desharnais, P. Geo., was the team’s presenter, and when asked about the SGS approach versus other competitors, he commented, “It’s really hard for us to know what the other teams were doing because we were up in the green room, but the one thing we did that was really novel was that we combined real hard geology with machine learning, and we brought in the Oculus at the end to make sure the targets were maximum value targets. In addition to the technology, we have mining engineers, metallurgists, and we made sure our drill targets provided the most value for Integra. We gave them 14 very specific targets, as well as a 4 phase exploration plan. We believe they are going to want to drill each target.”
"The Gold Rush Challenge has given Integra a platform to call on governments, mining companies and mining financers to get off the sidelines and get into the game. We are challenging traditional thinking and breaking new ground, embracing disruptive technology that is critical to the mining sector," commented Executive Chairman George Salamis, "The proposal from SGS Geostat represents the disruptive innovation we saw in the Gold Rush Challenge. We saw the tech sector and the mining sector collide and unravel the great mystery of discovery. SGS Geostat beat the odds, advancing out of the semi-final round and impressing the industry titans with their embrace of machine learning and virtual reality while also emphasizing the importance of tradition – data driven geology.”
The Quebec based consulting firm takes home the $500,000 cheque, and Integra benefits from a massive data analysis effort from some of the best in the space. Imagine if the world’s top business consultants were willing to come into your workplace and each give you their proposal for how to make your company better – that was the feeling in the room. On top of that, Integra management feel that the technological approaches developed for this contest could revolutionize mining overall. CEO Steve De Jong stated, “The Gold Rush Challenge exceeded our expectations on every front. It has proven our steadfast commitment to always challenge ourselves to think outside the box to create value for our shareholders. A number of the exploration drill targets identified through the Challenge are like nothing we've ever seen before. We have decided to expedite the drill program and start testing a number of these targets in the immediate future. We thank every one of the participants for stepping up to the Challenge and helping us make it such a great success.”
FULL DISCLOSURE: Integra Gold is a Stockhouse Publishing client.