Bill Cara's report today highlights the success of the 2012 PDAC Convention. His last paragraph is noteworthy, especially when one considers that precious metals are also raided just prior to the monthly NFP jobs report.

Regards - VHF

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Morning Report

Bill Cara

March 8, 2012

The numbers of attendees (well over 30,000), exhibitors (over 1,100) and countries represented (over 120) at Toronto’s PDAC 2012 mining convention, trade show and investors exchange add up to another outstanding success for the mining industry.

So big has this event become that the cavernous south building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre as well as the convention facilities of the adjacent InterContinental and Fairmont Royal York hotels are now inadequate. Next year’s affair will require expansion to MTCC’s huge north building as well, where I’m told the country exhibits will be displayed.

If there is one word I hear from first-time attendees it’s “awesome!” and it truly is. You cannot come here and not be impressed. If you come to learn, you will be overwhelmed with information. If you come to network, you will leave with friends from every part of the world, many of them government and corporate leaders. If you come to do business, you will get business done.

Usually I try to convey impressions of some of these exhibiting companies for your benefit. That was my intention again this year, but, unfortunately, I found myself hosting a large VIP delegation from China. One and likely two very significant professional services agreements will be the result of those meetings, but I cannot say more at this time.

Every year at PDAC, it seems, the Interventionists try to break the spirit of this group by crashing the price of precious metals. You’d hope that markets are void of these games, but we know better. We also know that metals are increasingly in demand and the discoveries less frequent and more costly as time moves on. At the same time, we know that governments throughout the world have lost control of their spending and that central banks are forced to help them meet their financial obligations, which devalues their paper currency, and lifts the prices of “real” assets, including metal. Hence, the spirit cannot be broken. These people are a force to be reckoned with.