The annual Noosa Mining & Exploration Conference, held on Thursday and Friday last week, had to contend with a recent sharp downturn in base metals prices and has been followed by a plunge in the gold price.

This wouldn't appear to provide the ideal backdrop for stock pickers but it did shine a light on some important factors for contrarian investors, as the focus turned to quality projects that can weather low prices and have the potential to increase volume as prices recover.