[3] The 2009 conference was held during the Global Recession, with 12,000 jobs having been lost in the Australian mining industry in the previous eight months.
Despite this, Western Australian mining recovered much better than most, and the general mood was "upbeat", unlike in the previous year.
[4] The event, usually non-political and mining orientated, was overshadowed by the 2010 Australian federal election, held less than three weeks later.
It was dominated by discussion about the unpopular Mineral Resource Rent Tax, newly introduced by the Gillard government, which was seen as disadvantaging the smaller mining companies and favouring the larger ones like BHP, Rio Tinto and Xstrata.
[13] Named after the Diggers & Dealers founder and awarded to a long time servant of the mining industry[14]