The calls have again gone out for increased government support of Australia’s mining industry from the annual Diggers and Dealers mining Forum in Kalgoorlie.
The calls have again gone out for increased government support of Australia’s mining industry from the annual Diggers and Dealers mining Forum in Kalgoorlie.
More than 1,300 international and local miners, financiers and a large media contingent packed out Kalgoorlie for the annual mining forum, which is the second largest in the world and costs more than $1 million to put on.
Organisers said despite a distinct lack of high profile names, a booming resource sector combined with high quality organisation contributed to the event’s success.
The conference, which showcased about 150 mining-related companies from the gold giant Newmont to emerging juniors such as De Grey Mining, is often seen as a measure of confidence in the Australian and global resources sector, particularly the gold industry.
Reed Resources executive chairman David Reed, who is also director of the forum’s major sponsor CIBC World Markets, said the feeling was very good at the conference despite a lack of support for the Australian mining industry by the government.
The Australian mining industry calls for public-funded incentives to encourage investor sentiment in mining stocks and increase exploration levels have so far fallen on deaf ears.
“Although we are making good money out of the nickel and gold mines now we are not replacing those deposits at the same rate,” Mr Reed said.
Despite the concern over exploration, many companies were reporting good brown field exploration success at the conference including local Western Australian gold miners.
Kalgoorlie-based gold producer Croesus announced on Monday that after two years of exploration it had assembled a record ore reserve position at its Norseman operations while West Perth-based gold-focused explorer Tanami Gold announced more high-grade drill results from its Coyote Gold Project, which was recently purchased from Anglo Gold Australia for $14 million.
Tanami Gold executive director Denis Waddell said there was an air of confidence at the forum, which could be seen by the fact that projects such as the 60,000-ounce a year Coyote project were progressing.
“This time last year we were hopeful of securing a project and getting into production now we have the Jaguar project in the Pilbara and acquired the Coyote project. So we now have two bankable feasibility studies underway,” he said
Eastern States and overseas interest in the Australian mining sector was also very strong at the conference.
Sydney-based broker at mid cap resource and industrial broker Austock, Roderick Clarkson, said he was encouraged to come to the forum by a large amount of interest from overseas institutions in the Australian resource sector, with a lagging interest from Australian stocks.
Mr Smith recently jointly managed a $115 million capital raising for Victorian gold miner Bendigo Mining, to develop its namesake project in Victoria.
He said the project found strong interest overseas.
The conference also had a strong overseas contingent and China’s interest, which has a huge appetite for minerals that is underpinning the resources boom, was strong with a record number of Chinese mining houses attending.
Organisers have pushed the conference back by two weeks next year to take the North American financial reporting season into account as well as the Australian Stock Exchange’s public reporting requirements.
