In an era of internet communication and instant information why would you go to a conference? This is the challenge Cambridge House has to meet every year for its Vancouver Resources Conference.
This year the Cambridge Conference had the great advantage that the junior resource companies attending seemed to be up beat. After two years on the mat, the TSX-V is showing signs of life. Precious metals prices are a bit firmer. Governments are realizing the value of their mining companies.
Of course there was a lot of buzz around the Goldcorp/Newmont merger. Both these majors have taken and kept strategic positions in many junior explorers. With the merger it is not clear what will be done with these positions. So far neither company has said anything publicly on the question and, so far as I was able to tell, have not said anything privately either. However, a newly larger company is going to need big, solid, projects and for companies like Western Copper and Gold (V.WRN) which is sitting on a multi-million ounce gold/copper project in the Yukon, this may be a huge opportunity.
Other than looking at various company’s projects and actually meeting current and potential clients face to face, my objective was to have a few, off the record, chats with some of the companies motherlodetv.net has been following.
A lot of those companies were in a single aisle I called Yukon alley. John McConnell from Victoria Gold had the latest video from the Eagle project. It looked cold. Very cold. But the project is on schedule and John assured me that gold would be poured in September. I was also able to speak to Victoria Gold’s VP Exploration, Paul Gray about his discoveries at the Nugget target several miles away from the actual mine. Paul has always said that the Dublin Gulch property, geologically, is boringly consistent. Drill almost anywhere and you get a gram per ton or slightly better. But at Nugget trenching has produced 124 meters of 3.5 gpt. Geologists like to be wrong on the upside.
I’d been on the phone with Toronto based White Gold CEO David D’Onofrio on Friday afternoon so it was great to spend fifteen minutes with V.WGO director Bob Carpenter. D’Onofrio is a finance guy, Carpenter is a geologist to his fingertips. We talked about the fact that the White Gold ground likely holds five or six mineable deposits and maybe more. We also talked about the benefits of having two majors, Agnico Eagle and Kinross as strategic partners and being able to draw on their experience.
I broke away from the Yukon for a walk around the rest of the conference and spoke with Dustin Angelo CEO of Anaconda Mining (V.ANX). Anaconda has the great advantage of actually being a gold producer with its Point Rousse Project in Central Newfoundland producing 15-16,000 ounces of gold per year. Which, as Dustin explained, allows the company to find more reserves without having to go to the market for more financing.
(Part II of Cambridge shortly)