The conference was supposed to be held at the Mount Isa Civic Centre last Wednesday and Thursday, with numerous resource company chief executives and directors scheduled to speak.

Informa marketing director of conference organiser John Wilson said the mining downturn and low attendee numbers were the reasons for the cancellation. 

“Informa has decided to hold over this year’s Mining the Isa Conference until 2015,” Mr Wilson said. Tickets for the two-day conference were selling at $2194.50, although special rates for junior miners and explorers were $550. 

Mount Isa to Townsville Economic Zone – which endorsed the conference – was informed by email of the cancellation three weeks previously, according to the development group’s president David Glasson. 

Mr Glasson said that when the economy was low businesses questioned the need to spend money on conferences. 

But there were a variety of answers regarding whether the resource industry was in a bad way, he said. 

“Depends on who you talk to,” he said. 

Mr Glasson said many local business representatives believed the mining industry was in a bad way, because larger mines were cutting back on how much they spent on contractors.