Morgans attended the annual Mines & Money conference in Hong Kong last week - The mood remained cautious but upbeat with many investors and companies...

Morgans attended the annual Mines & Money conference in Hong Kong last week - The mood remained cautious but upbeat with many investors and companies commenting that we've turned a corner... Depending on who you believe, there's anywhere between $15-50bn of capital sitting on the side-lines awaiting investment so when the turn comes, and the herd moves together, then activity levels could be big. The perception from the big global funds was that Private Equity, Hedge Funds and Pension Funds are investing in the resources sector as they see PE's, EV/EBITDA and P/NAV multiples at levels not seen since 1985. The big funds see the large gap between current prices and valuations as an opportunity and they also commented that generalist investors are yet to enter the market in a meaningful way. The feeling from the North American investors was that there is funding, but only for mature projects.