The virtual event will seek to replicate the one-on-one meetings, company presentations and keynote speakers that DGG's annual events in Zurich and Denver typically provide investors in the precious metals space.

"We had an idea in late January that [the Covid-19 outbreak] is not going to work out well for us and so our board authorised additional investment into our existing meeting system to be able to virtually conduct teleconference meetings with video and audio," executive director Tim Wood told Mining Journal.

Investors and precious metals companies will be able to arrange virtual meetings using the DGG proprietary meetings management tool, which is being amended to include high-quality video- and audio-conferencing capability for desktop and mobile devices.

"Instead of showing a meeting location there will be a button to join your meeting, and it will work like a call with Skype, Zoom or other services but working off our platform. Companies will be able to show their screens and their presentations too. The time zone is going to be the biggest challenge as the bulk of the companies are in North America. Many investors want to hop onto a call but scheduling them with 50 companies on their own is a challenge, so this tool is the best way to do it," Wood said.

To further emulate the traditional conferences, DGG is dispatching video teams to key mining finance cities London, Toronto, Vancouver and Denver (and possibly Johannesburg and Perth) to pre-record videos of company presentations and a roster of keynote speakers. These will then be available for download from its website in the same way company presentations filmed at DGG events have been in the past.

Wood was reticent to release details of who he is lining up for the increased number of keynote speakers for the event, although the topics are very clear.

"We will focus on the current market topicality [how Covid-19 is impacting the global economy and precious metals pricing] as well as the broader issues like ESG," he said.