The 2020 Diggers and Dealers was certainly a little different to previous years. Border closures, social distancing and sanitising aside, the event, in its 29th year, still shone in the gold rush town of Kalgoorlie from October 12th to the 14th. Industry professionals, exhibitors, mining and exploration companies, investors and key speakers enjoyed the opportunity to meet, share ideas and be entertained. Those who were unable to attend in person had the chance to view the speakers’ live streams or catch up with presenter videos after the fact.
Right from the sponsor’s opening remarks, the general feeling of the conference was of a positive outlook and a lucrative future for the industry at large. Mining investment is growing, exports are forecast to increase, and the general feeling was the industry is poised to help the Australian economy recover from the recent economic downturn. Diggers and Dealers’ new chairman Jim Walker also stressed the importance of advocacy for the industry in educating the general public about the positive ways in which mining contributes to Australia and people’s day to day lives.
Western Australian Premier, The Hon Mark McGowan delivered the opening address with great wit, cracking jokes that brought lots of laughs to the room. On a serious note, he thanked the entire industry for working with government to keep the mining industry not only functioning but thriving during the health crisis. He said, “I think we can all agree the hard work in Western Australia and the sacrifice were well and truly worth it. We kept the industry safe, while largely moving eastern state’s FIFO workers here to live which obviously will have an ongoing economic and social benefit for Western Australia.” Unlike many industries, resources has seen an increase in investment, employment and sale prices since the pandemic and these trends are predicted to continue.
Ensuring the industry worked together to do our best to address issues of safety, community engagement and climate change was a key topic of discussion. Gender diversity in the workforce was also a hot topic, as was the need for greater engagement with Indigenous groups particularly in the wake of the Juukan Gorge cultural heritage scandal. There was a lot of talk about reputational damage to the industry that can come from lowering ESR standards, while some were also stressing the need to balance this with the need to ensure there wasn’t too much ‘red tape’ burdening resources companies.
The Gala Dinner held on Wednesday 14 October at the Goldfields Arts Centre was a history-making event, with Gina Reinhart being awarded the GJ Stokes Memorial Award for making ‘an exceptional lifetime contribution to the Australian mining industry’. Ms Reinhart wasn’t the only winner on the night. Raleigh Finlayson’s Saracen Mineral Holdings and Bill Beament’s Northern Star Resources shared a win for the Dealer of the Year Award due to their purchase of the Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit gold mine. Best Emerging Company was awarded to De Grey Mining and Ramelius Resources was Digger of the Year – unsurprising given their 420% increase in net profits. Dominic Piper nabbed the media award for his 15 years of dedicated coverage of the resources industry in Australia and beyond.
It was a fantastic event for the 1,950 delegates in attendance and approximately 1,300 attending online. While many dealers in attendance lamented the fact investors and colleagues from eastern states weren’t able to join them in person, the event being limited to WA attendees only made for a very friendly and fun time, especially during the Monday and Tuesday socials. We’d wager Diggers and Dealers’ new chairman Jim Walker could never have predicted he’d be helming the event for the first time amid such challenging circumstances, but he should be applauded for bringing it all together in such a successful way.
