Last year I sent a note out expressing some frustration that all I seemed to be reading in the media was negative articles about the resources industry and that this negativity had permeated to the general community who believed that the resources industry was effectively no longer significant. I made the case that our industry was in fact in great condition and was achieving significant performance goals and operationally the industry was in fact strong. The 2016 Diggers and Dealers event was a robust endorsement of how effective the industry was with 45 presentations demonstrating what was being achieved and three days of great networking and significant business being negotiated.
This year, the situation seems a little worse. This year our industry is largely being ignored as the media moguls continue to reduce general reporting and in particular business focused reporting. We know from discussions that the journalists are keen to report what is happening and we know from the quarterly reports that the resources industry continues to deliver impressive operational performance.
I have had a look at our main gold producers profile compared to five years ago when the perception of the resources industry was still the focus of many headlines as Australia’s leading economic indicator. In 2012, 2407 people attended Diggers and Dealers. Below are a couple of tables that clearly indicate that our main gold producers have not only substantially improved the production profiles but have also maintained or significantly enhanced their resource bank profiles. Some of this has been through asset acquisitions and an encouraging contribution has been achieved through internal exploration success.
In 2012, Sandfire was just commissioning De Grussa and now is one of Australia’s respected copper producers and the company has also experienced strong exploration success securing the future of production.
In 2012, Fortescue was shipping 58 million tonne of iron ore. Many in the investment and general community were mocking the outlandish production estimates that the company was suggesting of 140-160 million tonnes per annum. General perception was that the company was debt laden to the extreme and the risk profile suggested that the company had a short-term future. The company is now delivering 165 million tonnes per annum, has one of the most conservative balance sheets and is one of the most respected companies in not only the resources industry but within the general Australian business community.
Seriously, the rumours of the death of the Australian resources industry is again greatly exaggerated! Our industry remains one for us to be rightly proud of.
Numbers for Diggers and Dealers to be held in Kalgoorlie in August are significantly ahead of the same time last year. We will meet again and our industry will again proudly present achievements for the year and strategies for the future. Let’s hope this does not become the annual industry reporting and that out media moguls again allow our talented journalists to regularly profile our industry achievements as they occur.
See you in Kalgoorlie in August.