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"Overall, the mood seems to be optimistic," Denver Gold Group executive director Tim Wood told Mining Journal this week.
"There is a sense that the industry can tough out the market even as it deals with a sea change in investment conditions for the sector."
Wood confirmed attendance at this month's Denver Gold Forum at Colorado Springs, south of Denver, was expected to top 1,120, compared with 1,070 last year, including about 620 sell-side and other investors.
"We have a significant influx of new investors, many of whom are generalists," he said.
Some 180 participating companies (174 in 2017) will include 70 juniors participating in the event's expanding Explorer & Developer Forum (XPL-DEV).
This year's Denver Gold Forum will run from September 23-26 at the Broadmoor Hotel & Resort in Colorado Springs.
"Confirmed meetings are expected to top 4,000," Wood said. That compares with about 3,800 last year.
"North American member companies have declined slightly, almost entirely due to attrition through M&A, etc, [while] ASX primary listing companies have reached a new peak share of DGG membership representing 14% of the total [12% of the total market value of companies attending]."
Overall, the Denver Gold Group had seen a "trend to the East" with increasing membership from Australia, Russia, and China, and increasing interest from Indonesia.
On the investor side, Wood said North American and UK-based attendees representing the senior institutions would continue to form the dominant presence at the DGF, "but we have increasing participation from large Chinese quasi-state owned enterprises".
"A notable buy-side trend over the last five years has been the growth in family offices, private equity, and hedge funds.
"Family office representation has reached its highest point this year.
"Sell-side has remained stable although equity sales professionals have been steadily declining."
Precious Metals Summit Conferences CEO Jessica Levental told Mining Journal this year's Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit, from September 20-22, had attracted record levels of interest and registrations, with this year's attendance to pass 1,000 for the first time.
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"We've seen increased registration by corporate investors, including senior and mid-tier miners, and private equity firms. Also, slightly higher buy side registration from China than in prior years," she said.
The large Australian contingent flying into Denver for the week would also be making its presence felt at the lead-in event.
"Australian corporate participation is up by about 25% over last year, and we've seen an increase in registrations by Australian investors and brokers," Levental said.
A keynote investment panel at the Beaver Creek Summit - featuring Van Eck's Joe Foster, Resource Capital Funds' Josh Parrill, and Steve Todoruk from Sprott - will provide a holistic, institutional equity, private equity and US retail, market view of the sector.
