PDAC president Felix Lee told Mining Journal the switch to online only was "history in the making".

"I've seen the convention evolve into what it is today, and overseeing its digital transformation in my final year as president is at the same time a great challenge and honour," he said.

From its humble beginnings as a small annual get-together of geology, exploration, mining and finance at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Canada, the event swelled to occupy the Toronto Metro Convention Centre in the early 2010s with a record 33,000-plus attendees.

The organising committee expects about 25,000-27,000 people to register for this year's online-only event.

Attendance for the physical event last year, which took place just before international travel halted for the most part, totalled 23,144.

Content highlights include the 'Profits with a Purpose' panel during the capital markets programme, featuring Aline Cote of Glencore, Mark Bristow of Barrick Gold, and Evy Hambro of BlackRock. The keynote programme will also feature discussions including 'The fate of gold deposits' by Douglas Silver of Flydentity and 'The decade after COVID' by Jumana Saleheen.

The PDAC will offer more than 100 hours of content via 100 sessions, which will be available on-demand for three months after the event. Lee said the 2022 event would almost certainly also feature digital content since it conveniently enhanced the in-person offering. "It opens up just a whole host of new possibilities and opportunities."

The online event will feature its normal content tracks, including Capital Markets, Investor Exchange, Presentation Rooms, Sustainability, Geoscience, and Short Courses. Participants will also have the ability to virtually ‘walk' the PDAC show floor. Companies will have virtual booths with chat rooms and the ability to book meetings with exhibitors.

The investor corporate presentation forum is due to combine insights from industry thought leaders such as John Kaiser of Kaiser Research and Frank Holmes of US Global Investors, with links to company presentations grouped into base and energy materials, diamonds, gold explorers, gold producers, royalty companies, silver and uranium sessions.

The PDAC event runs from March 8-11. Visit the PDAC Convention webpage here to register for the event. https://www.pdac.ca/convention