News

July 30, 2010

Diary Of A Private Investor At Diggers & Dealers: Prelude In Perth

By Susie Boeckmann

Paper, Scissors and Stone, an old family game, has struck this investor as a useful way of looking at the conditions in Australia. Take the Stone for mining companies, the Paper for government and the Scissors for all the other world components such as European debt, China worries, currency corrections, continuing uncertainty over the mining taxes, ‘the greens’, carbine emissions, immigration and all the rest. In the old game Paper wins as it wraps round the Stone, Stone blunts the Scissors, but Scissors cut the Paper. And a present it is a lottery as to who wins, with world events moving ever faster.

It will be interesting to attend Diggers and Dealers this year and gauge the mood of the mostly West Australian companies attending and presenting in Kalgoorlie.  Will local investors’ perceptions of risk have changed? Will they be prepared to take more of an interest in Australian overseas mining projects in preference to the home grown ones? Or will they just stay on the sidelines until the mining taxes are fully explained and confidence is regained? Will Australian companies be able to...