The PDAC conference always ends with a luncheon presentation by an industry expert. In 2009, the PDAC went way out of left field and selected doomsday economist Marc Faber to do the speech. His speech will be remembered for his comparison of Ben Bernanke to Robert Mugabe.
It was a much more traditional approach this year, as the presentation was made by investment strategist and commodity bull Don Coxe. In a speech titled Two Bets for Mining Growth: The Base Metal Bet on Asia, and the Precious Metal Bet on Obama, Mr. Coxe made the case that the commodity bull market has a long way to run.
He spent a great deal of time talking about how China and India are re-establishing themselves as economic powers and how badly base metals will be needed in order to allow that to continue.
“You are absolutely necessary for what’s to come,” Mr. Coxe told the crowd.
But things got really fun when he started talking precious metals. He got into the US$14-trillion in government deficits and said something is almost certainly going to go wrong as they get bigger and bigger. Gold is seen as the logical safe haven.
“There’s nothing to equal the excesses of government and the bad behavior of Wall Street,” he said.
He concluded by saying that he could not think of a better career to be in for the next 25 years than geology. “This is going to be where it’s at,” he said.
Peter Koven