And that friends is Diggers & Dealers done for another year.
It was hot, not all that surprising considering Kalgoorlie is more than 600km from the Indian Ocean.
But with the event held in October instead of August, it’s been an important and much more pronounced factor for everyone to manage.
Hydration has been paramount – water, the elixir of life, has certainly been flowing fast.
As have the beers – less so the wine due to the heat.
While it was slightly smaller than previous years – due to the travel restrictions from COVID-19 resulting in lower attendance numbers – the calibre and quality of presenters, partners and participants helped ensure the 29th event was a success.
The notable absence of some key interstate and international investment bankers, brokers and institutional investors may have impacted the volume of deals being done but, from all reports, there was strong appetite for robust discussions about potential programs, projects and transactions.
As all presenters made abundantly clear in their speeches – a tip of the hat and hearty congratulations to the event organisers for being able to host a terrific Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in very challenging conditions.
Heard on Hannan extends congratulations to all the 2020 Diggers & Dealers Award Winners including:
- Dealer of the Year: Ramelius Resources; award accepted by Managing Director, Mark Zeptner
- Digger of the Year: as expected, it was a double act: Saracen Mineral Holdings and Northern Star Resources; award accepted by Saracen MD, Raleigh Finlayson and Northern Star Executive Chairman, Bill Beament
- Media Award: Dominic Piper, Editor at Paydirt
- Emerging Company: De Grey Mining; award accepted by Chairman, Simon Lill
- GJ Stokes Award: Gina Rinehart; chairman of Hancock Prospecting accepted her award via video
- Ray Finlayson Medal: Georgia Kerr; fourth year engineering student
TALKING POINTS
IGO Managing Director Peter Bradford was a popular presenter as he talked up the Company’s high-margin, high-quality assets in Nova and Tropicana.
He also spoke about IGO’s balance between shareholder returns and spending money on exploration. With its $65 million exploration, Bradford explained the company was putting $1 in the ground for every $1 returned to shareholders.
What Bradford is not happy about is that the market seems to ignore IGO’s 30% stake in the Tropicana Gold Mine cash cow, attributing very little value to the asset. So much so the Company has embarked on a technical review to try to convince investors of its true worth, otherwise there is the potential to offload the interest.
Bradford also won accolades for being one of the best presenters of the week. It was refreshing to see a well-rehearsed presenter who can step away from the podium and speak seamlessly without notes or just reading off the slide deck.
Attracting attention in the marquee was robot man John from Vertical Lift Machines. John was drumming up interest in the fancy bit of kit pictured below. Basically, it is a spring-loaded system that reduces fatigue when workers are doing jobs that require them to hold their arms in the air for extended periods. When we questioned other potential uses, John agreed it could come in handy for long drinking sessions to reduce cases of drinker’s elbow.
MARKET MOVERS
Nickel is the market favourite to be the next boom commodity and punters continue to back it in.
Azure Minerals continues to receive strong support on the back of announcing significant massive nickel-copper sulphides from the Andover Project on Monday. The Company’s share price increased 19.7% to close Wednesday’s trading session at 39.5 cents.
Continuing on the nickel thematic, investors must have liked what they have seen and heard from the Centaurus Metals booth, with the Company closing 3.25% higher to 63.5 cents.
LAST WORD
“I’m not going to talk about my car: my Tesla model P100D; the best car I’ve had in my life.
“I’m not going to talk about its low cost and how it goes 0-100km/h in 2.4 seconds.”
IGO Managing Director, Peter Bradford
That’s all we have for you from the 2020 Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum…
The team from Citadel-MAGNUS will be back next year and we’re already looking forward to enjoying the camaraderie and enthusiasm of the mining industry’s best event.
