New coronavirus rocks major mine conference
About 23,000 people including Trudeau attended event despite COVID-19 risks
TORONTO The consequences of holding one of the largest mining conferences on the planet in Toronto last week in the midst of a global health scare became clearer on Wednesday as public health authorities confirmed that an attendee from Sudbury, Ont., has tested positive for coronavirus, sending shudders through the industry.
The conference, hosted by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, was widely attended, including appearances by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior cabinet officials, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his senior cabinet officials, as well as numerous senior and junior mining executives, drawing about 23,000 people — down only 10 per cent from the prior year, despite the well-known risks.
The infected individual, described as male in his fifties, attended the conference on March 2 and 3.
He was in self-isolation and his identity had not been divulged, but two sources said it is believed to be an individual who works for Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines.
The ministry is based in a building connected to the Laurentian University in Sudbury.
A spokesman for the university said all classes were cancelled as of Wednesday and said that the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines would provide further information.
A spokesman for the ministry, however, referred all calls to the
Ontario Treasury Secretariat, which did not provide comment.
The latest developments put many PDAC attendees on edge.
“That’s basically the takeaway of the conference — everybody’s paranoid about the coronavirus,” said Gino Chitaroni, president of Polymet Labs in Cobalt, Ont., as he struggled to suppress a cough during a telephone interview.
“There’s no question I’m stuffed up, but I’ve been like that since Saturday.”
Chitaroni said he does not believe he has contracted COVID-19, but said he thinks visiting Toronto had put him at risk, including by visiting restaurants and a “great party” for Northern Ontario’s mining sector where he saw people from Sudbury.
He said health officials advised him he did not need to take tests for the coronavirus, and said he felt far better than when he had the flu earlier this year.
For the moment, Chitaroni said he is taking precautions, like keeping away from his father, who is in his nineties and suffers from chest illness occasionally as a result of years spent in mines.
But, like others who attended the conference, Chitaroni said he was glad it had not been cancelled.
Felix Lee, president of PDAC, which organized the conference, said “cancellation was very much on the table,” but his organization checked in with Toronto Public Health officials, and was advised that the risks were low.
On Wednesday afternoon, Toronto Public Health officials faced a barrage of questions about the latest developments in the spread of coronavirus in Ontario including whether it was wise to bring tens of thousands of people from around the world to Toronto for a networking conference.
“Given the evolution of the spread of the virus, I think we’re seeing more and more push to reduce large gatherings, particularly those of international attendance,” said Eileen de Villa, medical officer of health for Toronto Public Health at the conference.
Ontario has 36 cases now and Canada’s confirmed tally has hit 93.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, said there is an investigation into his activities while in Toronto.
It is still unknown how he contracted the virus, but authorities believe it must have come from someone else at PDAC, though they do not know who, Yaffe said.
So far no one else who attended the conference and has tested positive for coronavirus has been identified to the public.
There were many individuals who cancelled as a result of the virus, but the only category of people who cancelled en masse were all associated with China’s mining sector, said Lee, president of Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.
The Chinese typically make up two per cent, or 20, of the 1,100 exhibitor booths at the conference, he said.
Anyone coming from a country where travel is restricted was granted a full refund, while others depending on the timing of their cancellation, were given 75 per cent refunds, according to Lee. Financial Post