Record crowd at Roundup

Thousands are flocking to this year’s Roundup event at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver.

MINING.com visited the show Monday afternoon and found the place a-buzzing with activity.

Organizers say the show registered 7,200 on its first day, a Roundup record. The last Roundup attendance record was broken at the 2011 Roundup, when 6,700 registered on Day 4.

Jonathan Buchanan, communications director at AME BC, which organized the show, attributed the high interest to the big dollars being spent on mineral exploration in this province — $463 million in 2011.

“Mineral explorers are an optimistic group so when you have that level of expenditures in BC and worldwide it certainly draws them in,” he said.

Exhibitor space is also sold out, with a waiting list of over 100, Buchanan added.

Highlights of today’s program included a welcome from Joe Oliver, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources and his provincial counterpart, Energy and Mines Minister Rich Coleman. The technical program consisted of an overview in the morning of exploration in BC, Alaska, Yukon, Quebec and Newfoundland/Labrador, while the afternoon featured “British Columbia’s First 100 Years of Global Discovery.”

Click here for the full Roundup technical program

Don’t miss the opportunity to peruse core samples in the Core Shack, which will be set up on Tuesday.