The Prospect Generation Challenge

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Submission Deadline

The submission deadline has passed for the 2024 Challenge. Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2025 deadline.

The Challenge

The Prospect Generation Challenge is a “Dragon’s Den” style event that will be held during the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2024 Convention in Toronto, on Saturday, March 2, 2024. The goal of this event is to excite students and early-career geoscientists about the mineral exploration industry, to create jobs for students and early-career geoscientists in this sector, and educate the public about how this industry is evolving and improving. The Challenge is a catalyst to springboard the mineral exploration industry into a generation of renewed growth by bridging the gap between academia and industry, and by nurturing socially conscious entrepreneurs who want their mineral projects to have a sustainable benefit for all stakeholders.

Past winners of the Prospect Generation Challenge are listed here

Prize Pool

The 2024 Prospect Generation Challenge will award $100,000 CAD in prizes. $10,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to Finalists based on the judges scoring as follows: 1st Place $3,000; 2nd Place $2,250; 3rd Place $1,750; 4th Place $1,250; 5th Place $1,000; 6th Place $750. The remaining $90,000 will be invested into Finalists projects with the amounts allocated into each project determined by the judges. See the Rules for full terms and conditions.

Key Dates

Submission Deadline: Sunday, February 4th, 2024, 11:59 pm EST (8:59 pm PST)

Finalists Notified: Monday, February 9th, 2024

Finals Event at PDAC 2024 Convention: Saturday, March 2, 2024

Networking Opportunity

Apart from the potential financial rewards, the opportunities offered by this challenge are substantial and include a significant networking opportunity and distinction from other students at the conference by demonstration of your entrepreneurial spirit and passion for mineral exploration.

Educational Benefits

The Challenge will teach participants about how to generate and evaluate mineral exploration targets and how to pitch their exploration ideas to investors. Participants will learn to interpret different types of geoscience data, they will deepen their understanding of various mineral deposit models, they will gain a practical understanding of government mineral claim systems, and will get an introductory understanding of mining deal terms. Those teams who make it to the finals will be provided with support and guidance on how to apply for various grants and other sources of funding for exploration.

Example Pitch Video

How to get started?

Browse through the list of resources below (we recommend looking at jurisdictions close to you first). Finding an interesting mineral exploration target requires a combination of hard work and good luck. Most provinces and territories have a system that will show you where mineral claims are located, as well as other data such as mineral occurrences, drill holes, geology, geophysics, etc. As you look at the various datasets in an area think about how they are connected and how that relates to the story you plan to build. Our team is happy to provide support and answer questions.

It should take approximately 30-40 hours of work from start to finish for a team to put together a submission for the Challenge. This includes the time it would take get familiar with one of the provincial geoscience databases and mineral tenure systems, browse through the data and find a few interesting targets, select the one you choose to focus on and build a case for it in the form of a presentation and supporting documents required for submission. Finding teammates to work with will make the project easier and more fun!

Eligibility

The Challenge is open to geoscience students and graduates up to 30 years old from recognized universities. While resources on this page are focused on Canadian jurisdictions, projects can be located anywhere in the world.

For a project to be eligible, the mineral rights to the project must be 100% owned by the team members, or the project must be on open ground (mineral rights are available and not owned by anyone). For team submissions, all team members must meet the eligibility criteria. Teams cannot comprise more than three members.

Submission Information

Submissions will be accepted by email at challenge@nextgengeo.ca until Sunday, February 4th, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Submission Requirements

Each team member must fill out a Submission Form. Attach all forms to your submission email.
Report submission PDF:
- Maximum of six 8.5” by 11” pages; minimum 12-point font size; minimum margins are one inch; text in tables and figures must be no smaller than 9-point font size.
- Email as a single unlocked PDF document or link to document stored in the cloud, 20 MB maximum. Embedded hyperlinks to external content can be included but may not be reviewed.
Optional: A Pitch Video, no longer than 10 minutes, uploaded to YouTube as a private video, shared with challenge@nextgengeo.ca
Optional: 1-page annotated list of supplementary data with links to reports, data sources, local mineral claims rules

The report submission must include the following within the six-page limit and follow this template:

Executive Summary
Brief biographies of each member of the team
Proof that proposed claims are either on open ground or already staked by the team
Explanation of why you believe this land is worth staking
Proposal for the work you would do on the claim to test your hypothesis and add value to the project. Put together a $30,000 CAD budget for your work program and a timeframe of May – August 2024 to complete the work. The more detailed the budget the better!

Finals Event

Saturday, March 2nd, 2024

Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Room 713, South Building

2:00 pm to 4:30 pm

This event is open to the public but a free ticket is required. Get your ticket on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/813571683807?aff=oddtdtcreator