February 5, 2024 - The Critical Minerals Edition of the Goodman Gold Challenge (GGC), a realistic mining investment case competition, ran from January 31st to February 2nd, and included a European team for the first time ever.
Teams of university undergraduate students acted as finance firms in this unique annual competition, organized by the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University and presented by Kinross Gold as the title sponsor. The teams were tasked with evaluating and justifying which of three companies would be the best to invest in. The investment choices included real mining companies, Canada Nickel Company, Magna Mining, and Talon Metals. CEOs from each company had 30 minutes to convince teams that they should invest with them. Teams then had an opportunity to sit down with each CEO to ask hard hitting questions, consider important data, and discuss analytics to help form their decision.
Executive Director of the Goodman School of Mines, Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk, commended the students on demonstrating forward thinking, “Mining is undergoing a big transition, and having students understand the critical minerals value chain and how to build successful mines will be a great asset for the industry as a whole.”
Students interacted with industry experts throughout the event. Theresa Nyabeze, Technical Leader, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Vale Base Metals, gave a keynote address and the competition judging panel consisted of highly experienced executives from Canaccord Genuity, Dundee Corporation, Kinross Gold, Orix Geoscience, RBC Capital Markets, and Technica Mining.
The Camborne School of Mines from England and Colorado School of Mines from the USA were international attendees but it was the University of British Columbia that took home the title. The winning team chose to invest in Canada Nickel Co., and went home with the cash equivalent of four ounces of gold.
“A big congratulations goes to the University of British Columbia, winners of the 6th Annual Goodman Gold Challenge. As someone who has worked in the investment business for a long time, watching these students present their work is always so impressive and gives me great hope for the future of the industry,” said Jonathan Goodman, Chairman of the Goodman Gold Challenge and Chairman and CEO of Dundee Corporation.
Second place, Colorado School of Mines, and third place, University of Manitoba, received silver coins. All participating teams received Sudbury-made miner’s lunchboxes for their participation. Students from the eleven teams learned invaluable lessons in mining investment decision-making and built lasting relationships with peers and industry leaders.