Attendance at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto has often been used as a metric to help judge the health of the exploration and mining industry.
While the total people count at PDAC won't be known until after the conference closes March 7, other early indicators suggest 2018 may improve on 2017.
Glenn Mullan, PDAC president, noted on the sidelines of the conference that booth space was sold out as were many of its events. Meanwhile, in 2017 there was no waiting list for potential exhibitors, Mullan said, but there's a "long wait list this year."
He put the size of the waiting list at greater than 50. He also pointed to anecdotal evidence that it was a lot harder to book a hotel in Toronto this time around than in 2017.
The pick-up may not come as a huge surprise. In the past couple of years, metal prices have improved along with financing activity in the mineral sector after years stuck in a painful bear market.
