A quick easy to follow list of some of the main mining conferences being held in Australia that as an investor you should attend.

If you have been wondering how the performance of companies in the Digger are going, here's a quick and simple review.

Encouraging results bode well for Orion Gold's new South African venture. In Prieska, Orion has the opportunity to acquire a relatively low capex, short term start-up operation that could be a company maker. This is a shrewd move, taking advantage of low asset values to pick up what is potentially a very valuable resource at a bargain basement price that could be brought into production in time to take advantage of any increases in metals prices.

Are the Last Twelve Months Disruptions over for Hexagon Resources? Following a challenging period associated with the failed Hengda merger, Hexagon Resources (previously Lamboo), under new management, has now regrouped and has had success in its refocussed efforts on delineating and bringing into production a high quality graphite resource at its key McIntosh Graphite Project in Western Australia. As part of its development strategy the Company is also looking at value add opportunities, including spherical graphite production.

Low Risk Power Opportunity in an Undersupplied Region South Africa has huge mining potential, what it lacks is the power grid to supply the many mines and projects currently underway. Breakaway Research believes African Energy Resources have both the short and long term solutions to address this problem.

Well 2015 is gone, so it's important with the current investment environment that your get the best advice direct from the people involved, that's where mining conferences can and do help, you get to talk directly to the companies before you invest in them.

Operating in some of the worldís most volatile regions, Aurora Minerals has managed to exceed expectations with the exploration activities all returning very encouraging results.

The Digger looks at 10 things we think will disappear in our life time.

Ongoing work by Thundelarra continues to confirm the prospectivity of its key projects, with recent drilling returning positive results at several projects. In addition to copper intersections in drilling at Red Bore and Allamber, the Company has intersected what could be significant graphite at its Sophie Downs Project near Hall's Creek - this is currently being assayed.

Flash Note - St. George Mining Limited Ongoing Drilling at East Laverton is Delivering Excellent Results, A Very Strong DHEM Anomaly was Recently Delineated and is Fast-Tracked for Drilling Work to Date Confirms the Prospectivity of East Laverton, and has Identified Additional Nickel and Gold Targets

Metalicity Limited (previously PLD Corporation) is now commencing the Scoping Study following completion of the acquisition of the Admiral Bay Zinc deposit, located in the Canning Basin of Western Australia. This is one of the worldís largest undeveloped zinc projects, and there is significant scope for a resource upgrade and expansion given that mineralisation has been intersected along a mineralised trend with a strike length of 18km.

Since our February 2015 update, Avalon has continued to progress the revised Scoping Study, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. As part of the ongoing study, the conceptual operation has been scaled down to a lower capex, 8 year, 1.2Mtpa operation, from the 10.4 year, 3.5Mtpa as presented in the August 2014 Study.