It’s mid-morning on a sunny Friday in July, and most of the offices on the south side of the 16th floor of the Guinness Tower in downtown Vancouver are empty. To Mark O’Dea, president and CEO of Fronteer Development Group, that’s good news. His employees haven’t phoned in sick to extend their Whistler weekends; they’re out in the field where they belong, combing the scrublands of Canada, Mexico and Turkey in search of the next big gold mine. ¶ Mining is back in a big way. Fronteer is just one of hundreds of exploration companies occupying offices throughout downtown Vancouver, ranging from one-desk cubbyholes in aging Granville Street walk-ups to Fronteer’s splashy suite of recently renovated offices on the Coal Harbour waterfront. The global demand for metals has sparked a bull run in the mining sector and against all odds, Vancouver is once again a hub of exploration activity. Nine years after Bre-X and seven years after the death of the Vancouver Stock Exchange, Vancouver’s junior mining sector has not only survived, but is thriving like never before.
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