Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1211970
S pring 2020 17 PHOTO: JAMES MAXWELL Investors Needed Where are the women and young people eyeing the exploration and mining sectors? By KYLIE WILLIAMS A deeper and more diverse pool of investors will bring much needed new capital into the minerals industry in Canada. In recent years, investment in the minerals industry has dropped, in part due to the attraction of high-risk sectors such as cannabis and blockchain and growth in passive investments. To encourage capital back into the sector, the industry needs to hold tight to current investors and put in the work to attract a new generation that must include more women and younger people. A major component of this work will involve changing existing perceptions of mining to attract socially and environmentally aware investors. "The key for the future is for British Columbia to strive to encourage responsible new investment in the province to maintain the pipeline of projects that eventually turn into mines," concluded PwC's annual B.C. mine report in May 2019. OK, boomer Traditional investors in the minerals industry fit a certain mold. Although data recording the ages and genders of individual investors is generally not made public, observations at investment conferences, such as the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, which focuses on the junior mining market, show that speakers and attendees are overwhelmingly male and much closer to retirement than starting out in their careers. In general, they are white men of "baby boomer" age, born between 1946 and 1964. Metals, particularly "safe haven" metals like gold, are attractive to this demographic. Gwen Preston, an investment newsletter writer who publishes her research for subscribers as the Resource Maven, says: "The investors whom I speak with all the time at conferences, who like this sector, like the fact that the assets are real." She also notes that older investors have lived through several stock market cycles and are attracted to the counter-cyclical diversifying force that is gold, but also to the excitement of the exploration game. 1/30/20 2:44 PM