Miners in Toronto for an annual industry dealmaking event slathered on hand sanitizer and avoided handshakes, while Chile’s mines minister doled out masks as coronavirus concerns overshadowed buyout buzz and prompted delegates to scrap some events.
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference (PDAC) has become an outlier as worries over the fast-spreading virus forces cancellation of other major international conferences.
On Monday, the CRU-Cesco World Copper Conference in Chile was cancelled due to concerns over travel risks associated with the outbreak. On Sunday, IHS Markit scrapped one of the world’s most prestigious gatherings of oil ministers and top executives in Houston later this month.