Special Report: It was a hive of activity at this year’s RIU Sydney Resources Conference, which took place over three days last week at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth.

And there was plenty to talk about for key industry players and sophisticated investors alike — with more than 70 companies booking display booths to discuss the outlook for their business.

Indeed, it’s an interesting market right now for small and mid-cap miners, with a number of domestic and global factors — from trade wars to this week’s federal election — influencing conditions across multiple sectors including gold and battery metals.

With that in mind, this year’s RIU provided the ideal opportunity for companies to network and connect with different investors.

Jaxon Crabb, business development manager at conference specialists Vertical Events, highlighted how this year’s event offered companies the ideal platform to showcase their value proposition.

“Our Vertical Events team was very pleased with the RIU Sydney Resources Roundup,” Crabb said.

“Although the investment conditions for the mid-cap resources industry has been slightly challenging in recent months, the diverse range of investors — coupled with the up-beat mood at the conference — indicated that a lot of investors were using the conference environment effectively to find great opportunities.”

“Take Blackstone as an example — they made a great announcement during the conference and post-event are now up over 35 per cent.”

With so many investors milling about, the conference provided a great opportunity for companies to provide detailed updates on where their projects are at.

Mining projects are often complex; it’s not always a simple process to convey the potential of a given prospect via a market update — particularly early on in the exploration phase.

So in that sense, there’s no better forum than the RIU, which provides a simple platform for face-to-face discussions where MD’s and CEO’s — many of them expert geologists and mining veterans in their own right — could break down the details of their project and give some clarity around the near-term outlook.

And speaking of the outlook, there was a strong sense of optimism looking towards the second half of this year.

The recent strength in gold, combined with a broader downward pressure on the Australian dollar, is expected to leave prices for precious metal elevated in AUD terms, which in turn strengthens the viability of many gold exploration projects.

And there’s plenty activity in other sectors, highlighted by Wesfarmers’ recent bid for mid-cap lithium player Kidman Resources.

Along with an interesting macroeconomic environment — most notably the US-China trade war — this year’s RIU conference created a forum for plenty of talking points among both investors and all of the mining companies involved.

This story was developed in collaboration with Vertical Events, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
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