Partying with purpose: world's miners drink and deal after dry years

Century Global Commodities

05/03/2018 19:54

By Susan Taylor
    TORONTO, March 5 (Reuters) - While not the premium liquor
and prime rib parties of old, miners are laying on the cocktails
again after several lean years, booking hotel lounges and
nightclubs to twin drinks with deal making.
    An upbeat tone at the world's biggest mining conference
comes as global exploration spending snaps a four-year decline,
underpinned by a rebound in metals prices and strong global
economy.
    After-hours plans at the March 4-7 Prospectors and
Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto range
from cocktails for 200 at the Pinnacle Room, a 43-floor hotel
venue with 360-degree city views, to a night at Rebel, a
waterfront venue more familiar with rock stars than rock miners.
 
    The parties are in stark contrast to grim affairs in recent
years, which were marked by tiny budgets, wilting veggie trays
and downbeat guests.
    But they also come with a catch - pitching ideas, striking
deals and securing funding is the name of the game.        
    "It's speed dating, straight up," said Kevin Lonergan,
operations director at Ireland-based Lisheen Mining & Technical
Services. 
    Canada's Century Global Commodities  CNT.TO  chose a
downtown hotel for its party after years of invite-only lunches
and 2015's office reception, where a project manager poured
drinks from the front desk.
    "This (year's) party has a value because of the networking
opportunity - it's effective given the amount of activity going
on and people bringing deals to us," said Chief Executive Sandy
Chim.
    Goldcorp Inc  G.TO   GG.N  sold out the #DisruptMining event
it co-hosted with KPMG, which awards up to C$1 million 
($770,000) for the best business pitch to revolutionize mining.
    Sunday night's party featured a dinner for nearly 600 with
elaborate light displays and confetti cannons that marked the
announcement of the winner.  
    'NO NEED TO ACT LIKE SCROOGE'
    Even tiny 'junior miners' that don't yet generate revenue
see value in opening their wallets wider.
    Explorer Erdene Resource Development  ERD.TO  hosted dinner
on Saturday for 50 Mongolian officials and industry players at a
high-end steak house, where a double porterhouse steak goes for
C$160.
    "Juniors like us, we do something very focused," said
operations vice president Michael Gillis. "There's a lot of
potential pay off."
    Red Cloud Klondike Strike said 590 investors, money managers
and miners wanted to attend its pre-conference party on Friday
night. The junior mining advisor, which only had space for 500,
had 30 guests at its first party in 2012.
    PDAC president Glenn Mullan said the days of "zombie" miners
doing distressed financing deals to keep their stock alive were
over. "We're enjoying some real indices of prosperity again."
    Floor space was sold out at Toronto's convention center,
Canada's biggest such facility at over 2 million square feet
(186,000 square meters), with waiting lists for vacancies, he
said.
    Last year, global exploration spending rose 15 percent to
about $8.4 billion, and S&P Global Market Intelligence on Monday
forecast a further increase of up to 20 percent in 2018.
    John Gravelle, the interim CEO of Colt Resources  GTP.V ,
said an industry uptick and buoyant battery metals prospects
means many companies are upbeat.
    "Miners don't need to act like Scrooge anymore, but we need
to respect the shareholders whose money we're spending," he
said. "Spending money and depriving ourselves of sleep is part
of being here - but we need to wake up with the business cards
that will generate the payback."

($1 = 1.2991 Canadian dollars)

 (Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Amran Abocar)
 ((susan.taylor1@thomsonreuters.com; +1 416 941 8083; Reuters
Messaging: susan.taylor1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))