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Volume 95 Number 6
The Global Mining Newspaper
Apr 3 - 9, 2009
The Northern Miner Home / Daily News
Daily News Friday, April 03, 2009
Press Release Wires
Filling Bay Street's mining information gap
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George McIsaac, David Love and Boyd Davis all want to fill in an information gap. While Toronto is known as the capital of the world for raising mining capital, the three men see no reason for Bay Street to rest on its laurels. After all, the whiz kids on Bay can sometimes be out of touch with the nitty and the gritty of the mining business. With mathematics and financial prowess often the chief criterion for gaining eminence on the Street, there can be more than a few people that find themselves in important research positions while lacking a sound grasp of the fundamentals of mining. The three adjunct professors want to change that and are bringing the intense two day mining course back to the financial district towards that end.
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The course is the brainchild of Michael Doggett , a geology professor at Queen's, and was first offered in November 2006. It has since been coming to town once or twice a year. Doggett explains that while teaching a one week course geared towards getting mining students up to speed on the financial side of things, he was approached by a number of people who wanted to see a "‘rocks for money people' instead of a ‘money for rocks people' course." While the course is geared towards analysts and research associates, the difficulty of the material is not out of reach for the average investor with a passion for the mining game. Each of the three instructors tackles the key elements of mining that they specialized in: Love takes on geology, McIsaac resource estimates and mining and Davis metallurgy. And while investors and associates make up the bulk of the students, the course also delves into the technical aspects of mining in a manner that a few mining companies could benefit from as well. Boyd says he realizes just how much knowledge some companies lack every time he goes to the PDAC and visits with smaller companies. "Often you have some kind of venture fund with $100 million, so the guy that's running it will take 20 different companies at $5 million a pop," he says. "All you need is a couple to work, but 17 of them have got a whack of cash for nothing, hired a hole bunch of guys, and they're out of business in a couple of years because either their process stinks or the people running it don't know what they're doing, or they can't bring in any more money." And while courses like the one they are offering can help, Boyd says companies going public with a project that relies on a metallurgical process need to get some top end consultation. "For a few thousand bucks they could get an expert review of something and get some guidance," He says. "I'm surprised that no one ever does it." But projects run by individuals that are more interested in spinning a story than doing the tough technical work are only one problem, another is the much discussed lack of people with sound technical knowledge available to help keep the