The head of Australia's second biggest gold mining company, Jake Klein from Evolution Mining, has launched a strong defence of the mining industry while warning that community support for it was eroding despite an economic contribution of many billions of dollars a year.
Addressing shareholders at the gold miner's annual general meeting in Sydney on Thursday, Mr Klein also lamented the lack of students studying mining engineering at university.
"We desperately need to make mining an attractive career option for young people again," he said. "We need to compete with the allure of the likes of Facebook and Google to attract and retain the best and brightest talent back to our industry.
"It should be of great concern that the University of Western Australia is forecasting only eight students will graduate as mining engineers in 2018 and enrolment in mining engineering at the University of NSW in 2017 was also just eight - the lowest level in 40 years."
Mr Klein said Australia's "vibrant and healthy mining sector" employed more than 200,000 people, paid state and federal governments "almost $11 billion each year", and paid salaries and wages to workers of more than $8 billion a year.
Yet the industry faced significant headwinds.
"The support and understanding from the general community of the importance of the mining sector to our country's past and future prosperity is undoubtedly eroding," Mr Klein said. "While the role of Australia's largest export products - iron ore and coal - should be well understood, how many Australians are aware of the gold industry's contribution? Gold was in fact our country's fourth largest and fastest growing export in 2016 when its value increased by 30 per cent or more than $4 billion.
"It is critical for us to regain the high ground in the debate of the priorities of our country and ensure the undeniable importance of the resources sector resonates more broadly. If we do not take on this challenge, we run a very real risk that we will continue to be seen as a politically acceptable target and situations like the recently proposed 50 per cent increase in the gold royalty in Western Australia - which was appropriately not approved by the WA Parliament - will continue to occur."
Evolution updated the market on the company's performance in the September quarter, in which it produced a record 221,971 ounces of gold. The company also said it would lift its fiscal 2018 exploration budget, initially set at about $50 million, by $5 million to $10 million, following recent drilling successes.
On a busy day for mining company meetings, the diversified mid-tier miner South32 held its AGM in Perth.
South32 chairman David Crawford said the company delivered strong financial results in fiscal 2017 "with a significant increase in profitability and shareholder returns". The company recorded a $US1.23 billion after tax profit for fiscal 2017.
Mr Crawford told shareholders South32 had lifted the representation of women in the company's workforce and leadership. "In the 2017 financial year, $US1.8 million went towards closing the gender pay gap," he said.
