As the Australian swimming team signed off on a successful first-week Olympics outing in Paris, they passed the baton to the team at the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum to deliver the next round of medal-worthy performances.
By last night, many of the expected crowd of more than 2000 miners, explorers, contractors, investors, support services providers, media and hanger-onners had descended on Kalgoorlie-Boulder – Australia’s gold capital. The pubs up and down Hannan Street were busy and warm, in contrast to what was shaping as another cold night with temps dropping down to 3 degrees Celsius.
Diggers & Dealers, regarded as the largest and most influential annual mining investment conference in the southern hemisphere, has weathered many a commodities frost over its three decades.
Hark back to the days when gold was struggling but iron ore and nickel were booming. Or when every tenement had a few pegmatites sticking out from surface, rare earths were rarely as popular, potash could’ve and should’ve fed the world and uranium was fuelling a greener, pre-Fukushima world.
But rarely have the commodities in the doldrums been so deep in the manure as lithium and nickel are right now.
Over the past week, global lithium leader Albemarle did the expected and pared back its much-hyped and under-delivering lithium hydroxide operation at Kemerton, south of Perth, at a cost of several hundred jobs. The not-unexpected news relegated Liontown Resources’ (ASX: LTR, Booth 80) announcement it had produced first spodumene concentrate at Kathleen Valley, in the northern Goldfields, to a “well done for turning up, all the best for the future” moment.
And as the capital market turns its attention to three days of mine talk starting in the Goldfields Arts Centre this morning, views of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter just to the south on the road to Kambalda will serve as a reminder – if needed – that BHP (ASX: BHP) has put its Nickel West unit on life support for a few years … but kept its booth (#88) in the Diggers marquee.
On the plus, gold price is trading above $3700 an ounce, triggering a raft of M&A as ASX producers try to buy growth to keep pace with market leader Northern Star Resources’ (ASX: NST) enviable organic options.
In addition, the latest uranium bull run is underway, there has been a discovery of something called niobium and there will be a scramble for quality copper stocks – it’s a shame ASX leader Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) couldn’t make Diggers – which should generate enough conversation fodder to fill the days and nights ahead.
So on a packed opening day program, here are a few moments not to be missed.
The weather is back to its Diggers best. A typically fresh morning is greeting delegates as they flock to the Arts Centre for the opening session and the 9.15am keynote presentation from Kim Beazley, Labor royalty, former Federal minister and past Ambassador to the US.
Given Beazley’s Washington experience and past ministerial portfolio of Defence, expect him to spend some time talking about geopolitics, which for Diggers means the impact of a Trump presidency on the gold price, global decarbonisation efforts and China relations.
The fact Federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton is expected to be in town today might provide a political balance to Beazley’s keynote or, far more interestingly, reveal some of the Opposition’s thinking about supporting Australia’s critical minerals sector.
The undertones could well prompt a conference focus on rare earths supply chains and the importance of Commonwealth support to get this fledgling industry over the start line. Heavy rare earths proponent Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU, Booth 57) will play a role.
Lynas Rare Earths (ASX: LYC, Booth 89) boss Amanda Lacaze will take to the stage at 11.35am. Lacaze is one of the most popular presenters at Diggers and the audience will be keen for an update on the long-awaited start-up of Lynas’ Kalgoorlie rare earths plant. A group of investors will head to the Kalgoorlie site this afternoon.
Yesterday, a crowd of 70 investors and media spent the day at Northern Star’s KCGM operations, with a particular focus on the company’s growth program including the $1.5 billion Fimiston mill expansion. If it hadn’t sunk in prior to yesterday that the forecast step change at KCGM of virtually doubling volumes of gold sold to 900,000 ounces per year from FY29 is nothing short of momentous, it has now.
Northern Star’s chief operating officer Simon Jessop will address Diggers at 10.40am. It is a cracking story – and one The Perth Mint will be hoping to enjoy all the way to the vault.
The Mint – Booth 79 – has produced an impressive five-minute virtual reality experience of the mine-to-mint story. It is an engaging viewer experience and helps to fill in the gaps between what happens when gold-bearing ore is crushing all the way to when you buy a 1kg four-nines gold bar down at East Perth.
Ivan Vella, the new boss of IGO (ASX: IGO, Booth 22), will make his Diggers debut at 3.30pm, with investors keen to find out where he sees the next stage of growth coming from.
And let’s not forget Wayne Brammell, due to present at 3.50pm fresh from completing the merger of his Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX, Booth 48) with TSX-listed Karora. The merger, to create a 400,000ozpa WA-focused gold producer, was completed last Thursday.
The Clarke Energy Cocktail Party in the main marquee will signal the end of proceedings before delegates head to their various broker, lawyer and accountants’ functions.
Or to the pick of the crop on a medal-worthy roster of evening entertainment, the Women in Mining WA sundowner in the Kalgoorlie Town Hall.
