There's a couple of interesting Open Sessions on Wed. March 4th at the PDAC. I won't be there on Wednesday, but these sessions might be worth taking in since they relate to what is happening up at the ROF and mineral discoveries found there.

http://www.pdac.ca/pdac/conv/2009/pr...

Snug

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Geo-Mapping for energy and minerals: A new federal initiative in support of northern economic development

David Boerner & Simon Hanmer, Natural Resources Canada

The Government of Canada has announced a new 5 yr - $100 M program, with the main objective to ensure long-term resource investment in Canada's North, through improvements to the existing geoscience database for Canada's frontier regions.

This multi-disciplinary program will be carried out in partnership with the territories and provinces to increase our knowledge of energy and mineral potential through new, GIS-based mapping and method development.

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Thought-provoking extrapolations of the platinum, palladium and rhodium markets of today and tomorrow

Stephen A Forrest,

Pr Eng, C.Eng, BSc (Hons), FIMM, FIMinE Director

The conference presentation will cover a concise analysis of trends in PGM demand, which will include the major PGM end-use sectors (autocatalysis, jewellery, glass, petroleum, nitric acid, and medical/dental) and will touch upon the investment sector. References will be made to environmental legislation affecting global vehicle emission standards, trends in PGM loadings and the substitutability of platinum and palladium in this end-use sector. Observations will also be made on the jewellery sector, and the development of Chinese and Japanese demand.

Similarly, the presentation will summarize trends in primary and secondary PGM supply. This will include historical and current global mine supply and primary production trends for PGMs, referencing recent production difficulties, expansions and their deliverability, and other projects coming on-stream. In order to gain a wide-ranging appreciation of the industry’s long-term cost trends of producing virgin PGMs, the presentation will look at the cost and profit dynamics of global production on a regional basis (Western Bushveld, Eastern Bushveld, Northern Bushveld, Zimbabwe, USA, Canada and Russia). Consequential economic influences within the PGM value chain will be deliberated.

In conclusion, conference delegates will be presented with a variety of thought provoking extrapolations of the platinum, palladium and rhodium markets of today and tomorrow based on established industry trends and market practices. An estimated long-range PGM price trend will be presented having highlighted major developing end-use PGM market trends (specifically on the elasticity of demand to high metal prices), primary and secondary PGM supply trends and a carefully reasoned forecast of industry supply costs and margin trends.