Chamber of Minerals and Energy president Kim Horne has supported the concept of a national amalgamation of mining industry bodies but has not accepted the detail of current proposals.
Mr Horne said he thought the concept of an aligned body was a good idea at today's annual meeting, but he was concerned the proposal would not reflect the needs of all its members.
Mr Horne was particularly concerned that the new body would not reflect Western Australian issues or provide value to its members.
"We've got a 108 year tradition of a chamber in WA," Mr Horne said.
"That brand and that quality of advocacy won't be diminished in any of the proposals that we seriously consider."
Mr Horne's statement comes after the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) sent a letter to 11 peak industry bodies recommending the amalgamation of councils.
"The proposal had 3 objectives in it and those objectives I think everybody agrees with, it's a more unified voice, more efficient process, we all want to achieve that, the question now is about the best model to do that with," Mr Horne said.
Mr Horne said the MCA's model has received considerable support, but stopped short of saying the proposal was a death knell for the CME.
"The signatures to the letter are supporting the MCA model at the moment," he said.
"Whether that's possible or likely I think we need to do the work and then listen to the voice of the membership about the outcome of that," he said.
Mr Horne added that if a merger was to occur it would not occue this calendar year as CME members had already paid for their 2009 membership.
