After an absence of more than two years, PDAC was back this week. Even lingering Covid concerns and soft markets couldn’t dull the enthusiasm at the world’s largest mining and investor trade show back in person for the first time since 2020.
Attendance was down from pre-pandemic highs with the official count placing this year at almost 17,500 visitors (compared to in-person 23,000 attendees in 2020), but you wouldn’t have known it from the first day’s crush at registration. Either surprised or out of practice, PDAC officials struggled to sign in thousands of people who showed up on the opening day. At one point police shut the outer doors to the Metro Convention Centre because the registration floor was over the safe capacity. Once inside there was still an over half hour wait for pre-registered attendees to get their badges. But miners and investors are by necessity a patient lot, and none of the first day’s initial delays dampened the enthusiasm of being back in person.
For years the industry and investors have tried to judge market sentiment for the coming year by the “mood on the floor”. The mood at PDAC 2022 was decidedly upbeat and enthusiastic, even as the S&P/TSX and the Venture Composite Indexes dropped between Monday and Wednesday as people were packing up their booths. The buoyant mood might have been the result of the joy of seeing people again, but there was a genuine feeling of optimism for the gold, nickel, silver and critical materials sectors, especially among the large number of companies who had secured financing this spring for continued exploration and development in 2022.
As a PDAC media sponsor, InvestorIntel found a number of old favorites and hidden gems on the trade show floor, some of which we will be bringing to the attention of our readers in the next few weeks. Some companies have been quietly expanding and developing their projects during Covid and now deserve a wider audience.
The InvestorIntel PDAC Panel Series: “The Uranium Bull in the Room” with moderator Tracy Weslosky and panelists Dr. Richard Spencer from U3O8 Corp., Tom Drivas from Appia Rare Earths and Uranium, Curtis Moore from Energy Fuels, and Jon Bey from Standard Uranium.
We also took the opportunity to catch up with some leading CEOs and industry experts for an update and analysis on markets, commodities and progress on properties. These informative panel discussions will be available as videos next week on InvestorIntel.com and our YouTube channel.
If the energy and enthusiasm (not to mention the packed hospitality suites) of PDAC 2022 is any indicator, market sentiment is extremely high for a good second half of this year. It’s not a very scientific measurement, but at this point, we’ll take it.
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