PDAC 2016: Hope for a new bull market in metals springs eternal at mining conference – by John Shmuel (Financial Post – March 9, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO – Veteran analysts at the world’s largest mining convention said Tuesday that the commodity bear market might be near its end.

The comments were made during a panel at the 2016 PDAC conference. Several analysts noted that there are bullish signs building up in the market, including a dearth of new projects, signs of tighter supply and the rock bottom level of capital spending in the industry.

Bullishness around mining stocks in general has certainly increased this month, as prices for metals such as copper, iron and gold have posted impressive gains.

“New capital spending has been cut, no one is building new mines, no one is looking for new mines,” said Greg Barnes, analyst at TD Newcrest. “We’ll have quite a rally by the end of the decade.”

Every year when miners gather for the industry’s biggest annual convention in Toronto, one of the biggest questions is when the current cycle will come to an end.

It’s become an existential question in the past few years as miners have been faced with a prolonged bear market for metal prices. The industry has seen billions in dollars of assets written off, projects being cancelled or delayed and companies struggling to stay afloat.

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