Vancouver Resource Investment Conference

On January 29th I will spend the day at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference. The last one I went to was just at the beginning of COVID and the junior mining community was lucky it did not turn into a super spreader event.

I go to VRIC largely to see a bunch of great people who I have met over the years and to see how their various projects are advancing. I’ll also say hi to motherlodetv.net clients past and present. But my main reason for going in person is to try to get a sense of the sentiment of the conference.

Junior resource companies have had a rough 18 months. I own shares in companies which are worth 80% less than what I paid for them. Fortunately, those are outliers, but 40% is pretty common. Some of these companies are not coming back but most will. Particularly those with cash in the bank and good projects. But they will come back when confidence returns to the market. By going to VRIC I am hoping to get a fix on when that might happen.

When people begin investing in junior resource companies they often have a touching belief that excellent drill results will drive a company’s shares higher. And that can be true, but companies can have astonishing results and barely move. Great results released into a depressed market barely make a ripple.

What I am hoping to find at VRIC are signs that the last 18 months of profound market depression are lifting. Junior resource company CEOs and IR people are professional optimists but, in the hundred conversations I will likely have while I am at VRIC, I hope to pick up the “tone”. Is the optimism real or forced? I’ll write up my impressions when I get back.

People wonder if, in the age of Zoom and virtual investment presentations, conferences like VRIC are really dinosaurs waiting for the asteroid. I doubt it. If we learned nothing else from COVID it was that Zoom is a pale substitute for “being there”. A lot of the value at VRIC is entirely spontaneous. Running into an old friend, overhearing a CEO talking about what his last drill hole “means”, watching the reaction to keynotes: you don’t get any of that virtually.

Now, looking over the list of exhibitors, I am struck at how many companies I hold shares in are not coming to VRIC. Which is too bad on one hand but also, for some, a good sign. VRIC is expensive for companies to attend. Not just in terms of exhibitor and booth fees but also in the sheer amount of executive time which is consumed preparing for and attending the conference. Choosing to focus that money and time elsewhere suggests to me that a company’s management is paying attention.

In any case, it will be interesting to see the exhibits, catch a couple of presentations and say hi to old friends.