Today BRR Media speaks with Adam Levine, he’s a Partner in the Corporate and Commercial Group at Middletons Perth office, but he’s joining us today from the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie, welcome to BRR Media Adam.

Oh thanks David, it’s great to be here and it’s good to be here in actually sunny Kalgoorlie today.

Yeah.  Well look a lot of media coverage leading up to this year’s conference was focussed on the recent commodities downturn and the current funding squeeze, particularly for junior miners, have those sentiments come to fruition over the past day or so?

Well I mean, you know, even finding a little quiet spot to talk to you David is a difficult thing here at Diggers this year.  It’s another sell out conference with about over 2400 people here.  And it’s amazing really to think that this is the 20^th year of Diggers.  I was actually just looking at some stats earlier today and in 1992 about 20 years ago when Diggers first started gold was at 475 an ounce and I think today it’s over 1,500, and the Aussie dollar was at 73 cents and now it’s you know it’s $1.05 so it’s amazing to see how things can change over the last 20 years.  But really there has been quite a bit of a talk of doom and gloom leading up to the conference this year.  I think the perennial problem is around funding, you have there’s just not enough funding out there either from the banks, the debt capital markets and it’s increasingly difficult to raise equity in today’s climate.  But you know just being here for over a day now I would say the mood is generally upbeat, there’s talk of consolidation in the winds and yesterday I’m not sure if you spotted it there’s already been the first takeover announced, and that’s the $426 million Silver Lake Resources friendly takeover of Integra Mining.  So on one side I think there is a bit of an upside and there is a bit of positivity around the place, but you know the doomy clouds of economic uncertainty from Europe are definitely closing in a little bit.  There was a Deloittes’ survey which was published yesterday which showed that the WA Top 100 Index, that’s the top 100 stocks listed in WA, plunged by 23.2% in the last financial year.  So on one side yes a bit of positivity, on the other side I think there is general concern out there.

And what about on the international market side, are there any international markets that are I guess are a bit of a focus at this year’s conference?

Well I mean you know Africa continues to be you know a major focus especially of the WA mining companies, but so does South America, I mean, there’s a lot more mining projects going up in South America, Peru, and various other jurisdictions down there so there is quite a bit of an international flavour and you can see all and sundry from various countries walking around the place.  But of course, you know, the elephant in a room is always China, you know, there’s always talk around Chinese investment in Australia, you know yesterday also there was Norton Gold the takeover by Syngin Mining Group, so you know there’s always a Chinese presence here.  But there was a report just which I read a few days ago which basically said that China’s trying to focus more heavily on their own domestic mineral resources and also there’s a real push by China into Africa as well.  So whether that’s going to have an impact on us in Australia remains to be seen, because obviously our fortunes are closely linked with those of the Chinese.

Indeed.  And the Mining Tax which held I guess centre stage over the last couple of years, is that still a focal point now or now that it’s up and running?

I mean absolutely.  I mean nothing really changes from that front at Diggers & Dealers and yesterday the chairman Barry Eldridge he was particularly forceful in his introductory remarks yesterday.  I mean he described the Federal Government’s approach as both inconsistent and delusional, I mean that’s strong words but believe me it got an absolute elated applause from the audience there.  So yes I mean the Mineral Resources Rents Tax is a key issue, the Carbon Tax is a big issue, in fact one of the big Newmont bosses, they’re the guys that own 50% of the Super Pit down here in Kalgoorlie, I mean he said that they’re going to be up for at least $36 million out of the Carbon Tax this year.  So the Mining Tax, the Carbon Tax, all those sort of things are front and centre stage when it comes to Diggers this year, and any opportunity to have a little swipe at the Government, especially Wayne Swan’s attitudes to Twiggy and Gina is not going to be missed.

Well has any new developments or themes caught your attention this year?

Well I think it comes back to the same point I started off with, I mean it really is Australia’s not immune to the economic crisis you know in Europe and what impact that is going to have on Chinese growth.  I think the other theme, you know, just talking to a few people the other concern that a lot of people have got is generally high operating costs here in Australia, especially with the high Aussie dollar, and also there’s been quite a bit of talk around ASX’s new regulatory reforms to try and relax the capital raising environment.  The junior miners will be able to raise an additional 10% of market caps and there’s been a relaxation of the spread requirements as well, so there’s a bit of talk around you know what the regulators are trying to do in order to make raising funds from the equity markets a little bit easier.  In conclusion is it a muted conference?  Well judging from the activity in Kalgoorlie’s famous or should I say infamous watering holes last night, I don’t think it’s going to be muted at all and I think we can expect some interesting corporate activity coming on the heels of this 20^th anniversary Diggers & Dealers conference.

Well Adam I really appreciate your insights and thanks for your time.

Thanks very much David.

That was Adam Levine, Partner in the Corporate and Commercial Group at Middletons Perth office, joining us from the Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie and listeners if you have any questions for Adam about this interview please send a message using the panel on your screen, or you can otherwise email through to law@brrmedia.com and we’ll forward your query.