MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

In 2022 we celebrated a major milestone – 90 years of PDAC representing the mineral exploration and development community in Canada. I would like to personally thank all of our 6,400+ members for their continued loyalty and support, which enables the association’s delivery of necessary programs and advocacy on behalf of the industry, and ensures our convention continues as the world’s premier exploration and development event.

As we enter 2023, we anticipate the mineral industry will continue to grow, prosper and evolve to capture opportunities and meet challenges throughout the year, and beyond.

I have been in this industry for decades, and having served on PDAC committees for many years, I’ve seen from the inside how PDAC – the leading voice of the mineral exploration and development community –is able to tangibly connect with our members and continue to successfully engage with government. While faced with wide-spread COVID-19-related challenges, we continued to be vocal about domestic investment and opportunity, about being adaptive, and about proactively strengthening our community.

The minerals and metals sector in Canada employs over 650,000 individuals, contributing more than $130 billion to Canada’s GDP in recent years. Over 12% of the workforce identifies as Indigenous, and this makes our industry the second-largest national private sector employer of Indigenous workers. PDAC values and supports collaboration with all stakeholders, and has a mandate to promote stewardship across the industry for the benefit of the people and communities of this great country.

I am honoured to have had a front row seat during the pandemic to witness first-hand the proactive nature, adaptability and resilience of Canada’s mineral exploration and development community through this once-in-a-millennium global threat. As we closed out 2022 and look past the pandemic, it has been very encouraging to see our industry emerging stronger, and with a brighter future, which is a testament to the vision of the role our industry has to play in the future of the planet.

PDAC is encouraged by the commitments that the Canadian government made in 2022 including the December release of the updated Critical Minerals Strategy, which included commitments addressing many of the association’s recommendations. It shows the commitment of our government to support the sourcing of the critical minerals needed to build the clean energy infrastructure required to transition to a lower-carbon future.

Indeed, critical minerals were the ‘talk of the town’ during 2022. This became the focus for some of the best-attended programs and sessions during the in-person Convention and online events. The mix of online and in-person events in 2022 allowed PDAC to offer a wide range of programming and sessions, spurring many conversations around critical minerals and the future. This lead to a wonderful feeling of optimism and a shared sense of growth for the industry, which created significant anticipation leading into PDAC 2023 – the first fully in-person convention in two years.

PDAC continuously champions the inherent role that the mineral exploration and development community plays in our daily lives, and in the current and future prosperity of Canada. So if the lessons learned from the pandemic have taught us anything, it is that we can build greater prosperity by improving the health and well-being of our communities.

With the above thoughts in mind, we are looking forward to increasing our advocacy programs, communications and policies, around making the industry more inclusive at all levels. In 2022, PDAC released several extremely important reports, including the Economic Impacts of Exploration Projects on Indigenous Communities Report , and the Social Impact of Mineral Development Projects in Indigenous Communities Study

The subject matter in the above reports are a significant part of our association’s mandate, as we aim to further our education for sustainable development principles in equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives through 2023 and beyond. This includes working with federal, provincial and territorial governments, other industry associations, investors, stakeholders, and educational institutions. You can read more about these reports on the following pages.

You can also read here in this Annual Report the significant outcomes from PDAC’s last FiveYear Strategic Plan (2017-2022), plus what’s in store for the next five years. While the pandemic may have slowed progress of a few of our goals, we are humbled by what we have learned, and excited about using that knowledge to create more proactive initiatives over the years to come. In 2023 we will be announcing our new Five-Year Strategic Plan – guiding us to 2027.

This will also be my final year as president, and I look back with pride on the work PDAC has initiated and completed during my 10 years on the Board of Directors. Through my tenure I have had the opportunity and pleasure to connect personally to members, corporate sponsors, and supporters of the minerals sector and mining industry. I will value these connections for years to come.

Moving ahead, I am looking forward to being a part of this important transition period. Mining is a hightech industry with a strong underlying focus on communities, environment, and sustainability. PDAC has – and will continue to – work closely with our partners and stakeholders to provide perspective on how minerals and mining are inextricably linked to the future of this great planet.