Opening the forum in Kalgoorlie this morning, Eldridge said strong management skills were required to maximise the returns to investors, while investors also needed education on the high risks in the mining industry.

“We do need to take notice when industry leaders such as Blackrock Investments openly question the return that this industry provides investors for the funds invested, and when industry leaders like Mark Cutifani comment that the resources sector is 30 years behind industries such as manufacturing in our management practices, efficiencies and disciplines,” Eldridge said.

“We are an industry that relies on access to substantial capital to identify, develop and operate projects and our primary responsibility is to maximise returns to shareholders and fully repay financiers.

“If we achieve this we will also ensure that we have a robust industry, pay premium taxation and ensure that we drive economic growth, employment and other opportunities for the broader community.”

Eldridge said the industry had demonstrated excellence in operating challenging projects and Australia was seen as an economic force.

“This does not preclude us making sure that we focus on excellence in management and business practises and addressing criticism of investment benchmarking as experienced during this year,” he said.

“I think this should be a primary goal of our industry.”

Eldridge stressed that his comments were not to be taken as a suggestion that the industry should limit the entrepreneurial endeavours it relied on.

“Without this we would not have been successful in developing our industry as we have been,” he said.

“Largely, access to funding the entrepreneurial endeavours or exploration is funded through risk-resilient funding sources that accept the associated uncertainty of investment returns by chasing the volatility that is associated with this part of our sector and exploration funding must be an ongoing part of the resources industry.

“This year, we have found access to this type of funding has been challenging and hopefully the funding of exploration will regain enthusiasm from many of the presentations at Diggers and Dealers.”

According to Eldridge, there was no better gathering than Diggers to renew investment in exploration.

“Exploration will deliver new successes such as we have seen in recent years through the discoveries such as the emerging Nova nickel project, Tropicana gold project, DeGrussa copper project and the reasonably recent Venus nickel discovery near Leinster amongst others,” he said.

“We can only achieve these successes through an active and robust exploration industry by both the established resources companies and the juniors.

“My challenge is not to constrain the ambition of new discovery, nor diminish the excitement of pursuing new opportunities which largely drives the higher risk appetite for exploration funding.”

Eldridge said the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ proposed Mineral Exploration Tax Credit deserved consideration.

“Our industry is unique, we need to pursue new frontiers on a regular basis as we do not operate in a regenerative industry and we need new discoveries on a regular basis,” he said.

Eldridge said innovation like Rio Tinto’s remote operating centre showed how exciting the industry was.

“We can deliver premium returns, fantastic new discoveries and facilitate fabulous innovation. We can and we will continue to be a positive contributor to our economy,” he said.

“Get this right and it will be difficult for our industry to be misrepresented as has happened during this period of Federal Government but we must deliver best practise and we also must ensure we educate the broader community about our challenges, opportunities and the drivers that affect our sustainability.

“I suspect we can do better at these things and I encourage us as an industry to embrace the opportunities available to us.”