KALGOORLIE skimpies are feeling the pinch from the mining downturn on the eve of the world famous Diggers and Dealers Conference as they contemplate whether this weeks earnings will match the lucrative revenue of previous, boom time years.

At the historic Exchange Hotel yesterday, skimpies were openly anxious as they waited for bar tips to reach sufficient levels to trigger topless rewards for mining professionals and executives that had arrived for the three day conference.

Talk in the town was of redundancies in the mining sector as a consequence of slumping commodity prices as Kalgoorlie residents debated whether delegate numbers would come close to matching the 3600 who attended last year’s event.

Emma, a 23-year-old skimpie from northern England who is saving to study occupational therapy at Oxford University, has fond memories of last year’s Diggers & Dealers where she said she earned $7000 in three days.

She said this had entailed 15 hour work days and 15-minute lap dances at $75 a session. In a good week, she said she earns about $2000 of which about 70 per cent was from tax-free tips.

Yesterday, however, Emma admitted she was concerned over whether the most lucrative week of the year would come close to break-even from last year’s bumper conference.

“Talk is there might be only 2000-3000 delegates this year, compared to 3800 last year. That means we could earn about $2000 less, we will just have to wait and see,” she said.

Sophie Redman, a manager at The Exchange Hotel, said the pub had to apply for a special ‘cabaret licence’ from the police to allow its skimpies to work topless during Diggers & Dealers, but they were not allowed to serve alcohol while baring their breasts.

She said the pub usually employed two skimpies, but had adopted a Fly-in-Fly-Out strategy to meet demand during Diggers by bringing in five additional woman from Cairns, the Gold Coast and Perth.

“People say times are tough, but I have to say that over the past six months, people have still been coming in. The pubs have still been vibrant and I guess that even if people only have $20 in their wallets, they still like to come in for a pint and a chat.”

Tom, an ANZ Bank Relationship Manager whose portfolio is small and mid-cap miners, said many juniors were in “survival mode” at present.

“Good projects will always attract capital and the bad ones will die a quick death. But it is the in-between, middle 60-70 per cent that are struggling right now,” he said.

“As a result many companies are drilling only to maintain permits, cutting back on director’s remuneration and even pooling resources in many instances with companies moving in with one another to share office space.

“We are seeing companies moving out of the Perth CBD to Subiaco or from West Perth to Subiaco. There is tremendous cost cutting occurring,” said Tom, who has 48 companies in his portfolio.