TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – As TSX-V-listed Integra Gold’s $1-million Gold Rush Challenge is nearing the finale, the company on Wednesday announced that five industry leaders will hear five finalists make a Shark-Tank-style pitch in March to try for a share of the purse.

The leaders were Rob McEwen, founder of Vancouver-based Goldcorp/McEwen Mining); Sean Roosen, chairperson of the board and CEO of Osisko Gold Royalties; Randy Smallwood, CEO of Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton; Brent Cook, author of Exploration Insights; and Chantal Gosselin, most recently portfolio manager at Goodman Investment Counsel.

Integra advised that this first-of-its-kind event was shaping up to be big, with proceeds going to charities in Val-D’Or, Quebec – home to Integra’s mines.

Winners would be named on March 6, at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s 2016 convention, which is taking place in Toronto. 

Integra invited the world to analyse a huge amount of digitised historic information (6 TB) from its previously producing mines in Val-D’Or and to devise the best way to locate the next gold discovery there. Integra sought to generate innovation in an industry that was undergoing change and challenging times.

The gold exploration company noted that 1 342 participants comprising 95 teams from more than 83 countries resulted in over 100 full-length (25 to 30 pages plus video) submissions received, totalling over 3 000 pages of new, innovative, outside-the-box and multidiscipline ideas detailing where Integra should look for its next big gold discovery.

Orbit Garant Drilling was announced as platinum sponsor of the Gold Rush Challenge, while IBM and Macquarie Group were named as lead sponsors of the Gold Rush Challenge Finale, which would enable Integra to direct proceeds from the event to various Val-d’Or-based charities.

As part of the live finale event at PDAC, IBM will for the first time stage a ‘mining and innovation’ exhibit with the objective of showcasing new, innovative ideas and technologies with the potential to change how mineral deposits were discovered, developed and extracted in the future.