Every year, around this time, the hoi polloi of the Canadian mining scene gather at the Vancouver Convention Centre for the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, or VRIC, and this year’s event was an interesting scene.

Those not blowing out the expense account at Number 5 Orange or the Pac Rim bar saw the usual lineup of big names talking about uranium and how AI will need more power going forward, and lithium and how electric vehicles will need more juice going forward, and copper and how we’re running low on the stuff, and gold and how it’s a safe haven from political weirdness which is blowing up all over, and everything in between.

To that end, nothing much changed from last year, when the same notes were sung from the same hymn book, but for the constant drumbeat of “Yeah, Trump’s insane but we can make money from him” and the “Yeah, Trump’s insane, and we’re all going to die.”

Jay Martin, who leads the conference his dad started years ago, has cultivated a serious brand of macroeconomic insight, personal development, international connections, and an interesting interview style that makes his show increasingly less about old white guys at explorer booths and more about getting a chance to get in front of capital-I Influencers of Capital. These are usually the sort of folks who are in the rooms you’re not allowed in to, be they political or financial, or both. Jay’s chats with people who make the rules rather than follow them can often drive sentiment in the exploration markets, at least untl we do it all again in March at PDAC.

I gave my usual keynote where I bury a body or three to an enthusiastic side crowd that’s sick of being beaten up by the guys with all the money in the Main Hall, and I debuted some info on the tech platform we’ve been building recently that hopefully will make the lives of the manipulators harder.

That site, Stockdox.AI, is not yet live beyond gathering email addresses from people who want to know when it launches, but we did give some brass tacks on what we’ve been developing. In a nutshell, clarity on public company documentation, since the powers that be won’t let SEDAR be used as a tool for good.

Stay tuned – I’ll divulge more in the near future but, for now, we’re locking in our financing and putting the tech through its paces. It’s a real thing, and the intention is to make the platform everything SEDAR should be; useful, transparent, cross-referenceable, and smart, not a frustrating bottleneck using 2003-era technology with the seeming intent to make us take up heavy drinking.

300 EXHIBITORS: A SEA OF SAME

As for the rest of the conference, if your jam is to walk up to a guy at a card table and ask him abou the map behind him and be told about his ‘world class board’ aand ‘top level management team’ and ‘underrated project’, you would have been in heaven, because there was literally 300 of those, neatly ordered in rows.

What there wasn’t was anything different to one another, or even anything different to previous years.

I’m sure these are all wonderful companies but, as you can see from my collection of handouts, there’s not a lot here that would make a casual stop and say “oooo.”

“A leading” this, a “multi-generational” that, a “next major” whatever.

Of course, if you stop and read the technical information in any of these decks, or peruse the ever-present map on any of the hundreds of booth backdrops with pictures of guys in hard hats, you may well find something of interest, depending on your preferences, but there were long lines of people walking by to get to the popular main stage presentations, and precious little interesting enough to make them stop for anything more than shaken hands with old friends.

This isn’t an organizer problem per se, it’s more of a resource industry problem.

A cursory look at any half dozen logos, websites, booth backdrops, and investor decks on display shows a constant reliance on ‘sameness’, leaving your average time traveler to feel that they got off their time machine in 2012.

STANDING OUT IN A CROWD

I’ll give the Fireweed Metals (FWZ.V) guys some credit – they stood out as much for their exhibit design decisions as they did their neighbours decisions actively fighting any urge toward design, and appeared to be seeing plenty of business as a result across the two days of the show.

Our friends at uranium prospect generator Skyharbour Resources (SYH.V), a title sponsor at this year’s show, managed to pack a workshop hall for their presentation (thanks for the strong lead-in to mine, Jordan), which can sometimes be hard for companies to do.

But when you have 36 REAL projects, 600,000 hectares, and fat partners like Rio Tinto helping you move all that along, with seven figure annual royalties coming in and an undervalued market cap, people will tend to mill about.

SYH is a former client, we have no current commercial connection, but I maintain journalisdtic interest in good stories whether I’m being paiud to pay attention to them or not, and this is a good one.

I caught Anthony Milewski’s presentation, telling those present he thinks “we’re entering a bull market for just about every metal” (steady on, champ), and resisted the urge to ask him about whether the RCMP are still asking him about that time he executed a bunch of Giga Metals options days before a random Reuters journalist dropped a story saying that company was doing a deal with Tesla (they weren’t), which quoted several Giga directors who also somehow managed to execute said options right before the fake story, which drove the stock up heavily – something they all profited wildly from all the way back down, to the tune of some $5 million+.

Milewski has been on somewhat of a reputational rehab tour since, but if the powers that be aren’t going to hold him to account, why should I, or investors, or the schedulers of spearker halls?

I did my part when it happened, posting an indepth story and a foll0w-up, and filed a report with the Reuters ombudsman (who officially ‘stood by the reporting’ even though what was being reported never happened and way outside thst reporter’s beat), and talked to the cops when they showed up at my office door asking about it, and the regulators, but hey, here comes the ‘bull market on everything,’ guys, cool.

I re-met a lot of people I’ve kicked around back in the day, as I do at most VRIC’s, and for the most part they greet me warmly and understand we all have a place in a healthy market ecosystem, but deal guy Chad McMillan continues to hate me with the ferocity of a hundred suns because I used to beat on one of his deals, the now Imagine AR (IP.C), which has always turned out to be as shit as I said it was. To be fair, things did get a bit personal back in the day – he alleged to his shareholders that I was a ‘fraudulent shorter’ (I wasn’t), and I put word out to my audience that he was a cracked out yoga mommy (he isn’t cracked out).

I chatted with him a couple of shows ago about how I had no hard feelings and would even give any deals he was proud of a fair shake and some free publicity, if he wanted it, but despite his building a podcast/ebook brand around being a ‘zenture capitalist’, it appears he’s not going to let it go and prefers to turn his back when he sees me.

That’s fine. Chad’s recently been announced as a strategic advisor to Durango Resources (DGO.V), a company whose management I respect but who could, frankly, use the services of Chaddles, and it appears their share price has been in better shape since he came on (not a client, no commercial interest, etc etc, but I’m all about being fair).

MAN OF HIS WORD

Bumped into Howe Street penny deal chain smoking legend Mike England, who I haven’t seen for a bit, and asked him about Golden Lake Resources (GLM.C), which I first wrote about several years back as a deal England saw then as a legacy project. He wasn’t getting much love for it at the time, having a reputation as a chancer who was great at getting deals from 5c to 12c but wasn’t necessarily going to bend his back getting something to production, but you’ve got to give credit to folks who back their words with actions, and England said way back then he was sticking this one out. “This could really be something to be proud of,” he said back then, adding, “I’m going to see how far I can take it.”

GLM is still out there toiling away today, at more or less the same price as the last three years (which, considering the state of the markets, isn’t a bad thing), and when I asked Mike about the future for his company, he gave me a firm “I can’t say. Can’t talk about it. It’s good. Lots of things. Argh, can’t say.” Which isn’t how he normally rolls.

So, like, watchlist.

THE FORCES OF GOOD

Junior Stocks Report author Kal Kotecha was there, rounding up investors for VRIC’s Pangea Club, which links companies with one on one chances to sit with folks who have the sort of capital that cold move the needle for them. Kitchener Ontario-based Kotecha and I have been working on the Stockdox platform I mentioned above remotely for a while, but I enjoyed seeing him working the room, bringing good people together, and repping a couple of deals he thinks are truly visionary.

I literally just left a boardroom he filled with bodies to hear about a lithium company that.. well, let’s just say I’m going to tell you a LOT about this deal in the weeks an months ahead, and it seems like a beauty.

That’s right, I said lithium deal. Really.

AND THE ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT?’ AWARD GOES TO:

Cassiar Gold (GLDC.V).

This company does not have a chart that makes people sit up and take notice.

..BUT, when they presented it, folks’ ears perked up and conversations began.

Not a client, so I have no dog in the fight, but I had enough people asking my opinion about this one that, in a nutshell, and free of charge, here’s what its got:

Pros:

1. Strong Asset Base: Cassiar Gold owns the Cassiar Gold Project, which is in a prolific region of British Columbia, historically known for its high-grade gold deposits. It has two mine permits and a fully owned and permitted mill.
2. Exploration Upside: Recent exploration results demonstrate the potential for high-grade gold mineralization at both the Cassiar North and South areas, which remain underexplored.
3. Large Resource Potential: The project contains a sizable inferred gold resource with room for expansion. District scale orogenic gold, 46,000 metres drilled.
4. Experienced Leadership: The management team and board have a proven track record in mining, exploration, and corporate development.
5. Supportive Mining Jurisdiction and Community: British Columbia isn’t known for being mining-friendly, but this region is deep into it with well-developed infrastructure and clear regulatory processes, and Cassiar has chipped in with $80k in ESG, land reclamation, and First Nations community support since 2018.
6. Multiple Exploration Targets: Identified several untested targets within its land package, providing numerous year-round opportunities for resource growth.
7. High-Grade Historical Mining: The property has a history of producing high-grade gold, indicating the potential for economically viable operations.
8. Positive Market Conditions for Gold: Current macroeconomic conditions, including inflationary pressures and demand for safe-haven assets, support a strong gold price outlook.
9. Institutional Support and Cash at the Ready : Sprott and US Global are in, among others, for 41% insider/institutional ownership, nearly $5m cash in hand with just a $25m market cap.

Risks:

1. Early Development Stage: Nno feasibility study or clear timeline for development and production – yet.
2. Financing Risks: As a junior exploration company, future funding comes with the chance of being light and/or dilutionary.
3. Regulatory and Permitting Risks: It’s BC; permitting processes can be lengthy and complex.

I’ll be circling back on other companies I saw and liked in the weeks ahead, but that’ll do for today with the VRIC 2025 wrap.

— CHRIS PARRY