The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that more than 2,000 mining executives and promoters spent three days at a convention last week in Kalgoorie attacking the nation's Prime Minister for proposing a new tax on iron ore and coal mines. A Reuters dispatch to the Post says politics dominated the annual Diggers and Dealers gathering, better known for all-night boozing than political debate. This year, however, one after another, delegates voiced disbelief at the idea of a 30-per-cent tax on profits and hinges on Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who has held the job for less than two months, winning an election on Aug. 21. "What are they thinking in Canberra?" said David Flanagan at Atlas Iron Ltd. Mining is the top export earning industry for Australia. Residents of Kalgoorlie need little reminder of where the money comes from. The giant Super Pit gold mine, a 3.8-kilometre-long moon crater owned 50:50 by Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining, looms over the town of 30,000. Robert Friedland, Ivanhoe Mines' executive chairman, said copper miners may have the least to worry about as his company moves to start construction of the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, potentially one of the world's largest.