Vanderhoof, B.C. – The community of Vanderhoof is the focus of the mining industry  for the  balance of the week, as the  Minerals North  2014 conference  gets underway.

“This will be the largest conference Vanderhoof has hosted” says Brian Fenkel, a Director with Avison Management Services, an environmental and resource management firm in Vanderhoof.

Nearly  400 delegates and  more than a hundred  tradeshow  participants are taking part in the  conference that runs today through  Friday.

Fenkel has been chairing the committee that has been working on the planning for this conference  and  hundreds of volunteers have stepped  forward to help “It brings the town together and it really gets a lot of folks involved.”

Over the course of  three days,  delegates will  not only have an opportunity to  provide updates on their projects, they will also  have a chance to network with  each other and  share  common concerns with  the government officials who will be in attendance.

Delegates will also have a chance to see what School District 91 has put together in the classroom on the subject of mining.   Minerals education classes in grades 1 and 2, moves to  junior mining  programs for grades 6 and 7  and will include  a heavy  equipment hands on  display  for the  high school  students “This is going to be one of the neatest events” sans Fenkel “This is going to be right across from the arena for these kids to look at, to work on,  New Gold is bringing their heavy duty simulator in.  It tries to give the kids while they’re in grades 10, 11 and twelve a hands on idea of what they can do.  The younger grades are learning what mining is and why we need minerals.”

The conference kicks off this morning, with  MLA John Rustad making an announcement about  an economic and community development agreement.

The three day conference is expected to pump $600 thousand dollars into the local economy.