AME's Kendra Johnston on Roundup Conference Updates and News
Trevor Hall Hey, welcome to Mining Stock Daily. This is Trevor Hall and once again joined by the Association for Mineral Exploration President, that's Kendra Johnston. AME is also a sponsor for this podcast. And we are presenting a corporate update on the Roundup Conference happening in beautiful Vancouver, January 20th through the 23rd. Kendra, thanks once again for joining us here on Mining Stock Daily. We have a number of things to get through, but first of all, big news, important news. Registration is open for the conference. There's a lot going into it. Kind of give us a rundown of who exactly will be registering for this conference. And if you haven't attended the Roundup, why would you consider attending Roundup this year?
Kendra Johnston Thanks again for having me, Trevor. It's always a lot of fun to come on your show and speak with you. So, yeah, we appreciate the opportunity to talk about Roundup and all the great things that are happening this year. So our membership and our registration, folks from Roundup are really quite diverse. We get a lot of geologists, obviously, as it's a relatively technical conference. But the show has grown so much over the last few years into a number of different things for different people, depending on what the focus is. So we do actually get quite a few investors out to Roundup now, primarily to come and see our Core Shack, which is a fabulous display of over 60 companies showing their very most recent core, most likely from this summer. But we also have a fabulous exhibit called The Gathering Place, which is the space for First Nation and industry to come together and meet and really have a wholesome discussion about what they're doing and the work and give examples of some of the great relationships that are being built in the mineral exploration industry. On top of that, we have some fabulous short courses that are being offered this year, including our Mining Company Disclosure 101, which is put on by the B.C. Securities Commission. It's always a great one for learning about technical disclosure, how to write a 43-101, but perhaps for your audience, probably more importantly, how to go about reading a 43-101and the information that can found in it, that's really important for investors to know.
Trevor Hall Yeah, there's a number of different topics, including that Disclosure one. One that really--there's two of them that really stick out to me. That is the Application for Machine Learning. Obviously been a hot topic in this industry for the last five years. And it's interesting to see how AI is really transforming this industry, especially on the exploration level of minerals and mining. It's also really interesting to know that--there's two on here, one on epithermal ore deposits and another one on porphyry copper systems. And I know for a fact that some investors actually attend these short courses. It's not just a technical level people that work inside the industry. I do know investors take part in these. Is that correct? They do that at Roundup, right?
Kendra Johnston Oh, they do absolutely come out. And it's always great because they bring such interesting questions and really add to the short courses. I think the other one that might be really of interest is that the geochemical data: the acquisition, quality, management, interpretation of it. I think that's at the most basic grassroots level in exploration. That's really what we use to determine where we're going to go in exploration projects as they advance. So really understanding not only how we acquire that data, but then the management of that data from a quality perspective and how it goes to the laboratory procedure and all those things that can be really, really, really interesting for investors to come and learn about. But then, yes, as we move into the different deposit types and models, you know, those are all we're all hobby geologists at heart and love those sort of big system, earth system science conversations. So that's what this is really about.
Trevor Hall Well, I think that's one of the things like I appreciate the most about Roundup, which makes it different from a lot of the other conferences and shows that take place throughout the world is you really get you get a chance to speak with these companies. But it's not just high-level management people who are sitting at the booth. You get a lot of views, technical boots on the ground type of geologists and even know apprentices or interns that are involved with work there on the ground to actually have a conversation, walk through the core and actually have a really good conversation with how meaningful it is for them as a professional.
Kendra Johnston Absolutely. And every geologist that attends a show that's working out on a project absolutely loves talking about their own rocks. The rocks that they have down from their property. And somebody is willing to listen to them talk about their rocks, they are more than willing to share and tell them about them. So it's it really is the perfect place to come and find a geologist who can tell you about a project that you're interested in.
Trevor Hall So it's not just about the Core Shack. Obviously, you have a number of service providers that are located there in Vancouver and surrounding British Columbia as well, that obviously takes up a lot of floor space. But why is that--why are the service providers so intriguing to mining investors?
Kendra Johnston That's a really good question. So interestingly, the service and supply folks are some of the larger investors in our industry as well. And so, you know, they're really quite in tune with what's going on with the projects that are happening around them, with the projects that they're working on. So they're incredibly knowledgeable sources of information to learn about projects, to learn about the best operators in the in the province and in the group as well and best practices and what's happening. And, you know, to be able to walk up to, say, a drilling company and learn about how the drill works and how the core comes out of the ground is just a really neat experience to have to understand sort of when we use helicopters versus ATVs or, you know, talk to the different labs to find out how a variety of analyses are run on soils versus rocks and that difference there is-- everybody's really happy to talk about their piece of the exploration industry and how it plays a role.
Trevor Hall Yes, everybody plays a very important piece when it comes to this business. I do want to add real quickly, we have just a few minutes, but depending on what your approach is to coming to Roundup, you can create a strategy. There are a different--I guess you can call them different tracks, that you can kind of focus on and you can use the website roundup.amebc.ca to see where your area of interest is in and kind of walk us through how somebody might approach different strategies when coming to Roundup.
Kendra Johnston Absolutely. So this could be an entire conversation unto itself. But there is always more than one thing happening at Roundup, whether it be a talk on a technical stage, which is our largest stage in the conference. A talk on The Gathering Place stage or talk on the Innovation Stage and then the entire exhibit hall worth of information on top of that, there's a variety of lunches to come to and breakfast events as well, that all have a slightly different take on the importance of exploration and how the business operates. So, you know, as investors, I think it probably pays to look mostly at the technical sessions first, look at the talks and the commodities. They're all arranged either by jurisdiction or by commodity and have a look at what you're really interested in and make sure to schedule those talks in first, and then have a look at the talks on the Gathering Place and the Innovation Stage and at the lunches and see what strikes you fancy and then know that the Core Shack switches after Day Two. So Monday, Tuesday, there's a group of companies and then Wednesday, Thursday, there's a different group of companies. So making sure to hit the companies there on the right day and see the rocks that you're really interested in and talk to the geologists on those projects.
Trevor Hall What about if you're a student can do about it? What sort of benefits do students receive as attending?
Kendra Johnston So the students come in and they really the world is their oyster at Roundup. There's so many people to talk to, so many young people to engage with and, you know, to be able to find a mentor, to be able to find a job, to be able to network into those things is unbelievable. We also have a student short course happening on the Sunday beforehand. And then the student industry networking night on Sunday evening. So great places where industry always comes to find the students to meet with the students. And those are the folks that really want to come in and help out the student. So that's always a fabulous thing for them to do. And then really it's a great learning opportunity for them to walk around and see rocks from different areas of the world and different areas of the Province as well.
Trevor Hall Kendra, I think the key takeaway that listeners need to remember is that registration is open for Roundup. The dates are January 20th through the 23rd. So go ahead and go to roundup.amebc.ca and click on that registration button for more information. Is there anything else that we're missing that we need to follow up on here in the next 20 seconds?
Kendra Johnston Just add that there's so much more information still to come and to be added to the website. So our early bird registration will close early December. So you do have a little bit of time between now and then to wait and see some of that information. But I promise you, you will love it. And I definitely encourage all of your listeners to come out and join us for Roundup this year.
Trevor Hall Thank you, Kendra. I look forward to our next conversation. Have yourself a great day.
Kendra Johnston Thanks. You, too.