The Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum takes place each year in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In 2017 over 2,100 delegates are registered to attend the event, which starts on Monday 7th August.

To put it in a nutshell, it’s the equivalent of the London Mines and Money show being transferred to Yeovil or Truro, towns of equal population and remoteness.

The Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum 2017.

I arrived in Perth, Western Australia, after a long and tiring journey from London, and checked into my hotel, where I would only stay for 12 hours before departing for Kalgoorlie, by train the following morning.

I left the hotel at 06.45 am to board “The Prospector”, a three coach diesel train that would whisk me to Kalgoorlie in just over 7 hours.  I had the good fortune of being seated next to a former chairman of the show, a really interesting and nice guy, who made the journey a lot more interesting by pointing out the landmarks along the way.

Upon arrival at Kalgoorlie, my host took me directly to see the “Super Pit”, the enormous working gold mine at the edge of the town. It is highly impressive to say the least, even on a Saturday mining was at full pace.

Kalgoorlie is a wonderful old colonial style town, spotlessly clean, and the architecture from past times is still in good order. The people are warm and friendly.

I registered for the show a day early to avoid the queues, and was surprised to see the sheer size of the marquee, which is sat in a car park!  The presentations take place in the nearby sports centre, and the company stands,overflow room, as well as the refreshments and food, are located in the marquee, the size of which I have never seen before, it’s the size of a small building.

The show takes over the town, all hotels are crammed, they had to put out an appeal for people to accept delegates into their houses, but all seems to be coming together nicely.

The bar in the local “skimpy’s” was full tonight, and people are in bouyant mood for the conference and state of Australian mining in general.

I will give some feedback each day from the forum and mention the companies that catch my eye.

Kalgoorlie is an old gold mining town, ,and today is home to the “Super Pit”, an enormous hole in the ground (330 metres).