Aside from keynote speaker Dr Linda Yueh, there were only two female company presenters, half of last year's already low number.
"It's always a delight to be here at Diggers … and I'm sad that this year we're missing Elizabeth Gaines and her Diggers & Dealers Diversity Index," Lynas Rare Earths CEO Amanda Lacaze told the auditorium during her presentation.
"However, in her absence, I can tell you we continue to have more Andrews, more Tonys, more Marks, more Matthews and more Lukes presenting than we do women.
"In fact, we've really nailed it this year - there's two of us," she said, teasing, but adding that it was pleasing to see more women in the mining sector overall.
Speaking to journalists, Lacaze said it "clearly" wasn't appropriate.
"On the other hand, I don't think it necessarily represents what we have managed to achieve in the industry," she said.
"If you look at the number of women in senior roles today, it has really significantly increased."
Lacaze pointed to Fiona Hick, CEO of Fortescue Metals, BHP president Minerals Australia Geraldine Slattery and Nickel West asset president Jess Farrell and Rio Tinto Australia managing director Kellie Parker and chief executive Minerals Sinead Kaufman as good examples of the improvement.
However, all work for ASX 50 companies.
"This year it's really interesting to think about in terms of gender - it's more a reflection that we've got more of the explorers and developers [speaking at Diggers]," Lacaze said.
"Does that say something about the risk profile of women? I'm not quite sure."
For the second year running, Diggers attendees Heidi Pass and Lynda Burnett have crunched the numbers on diversity among the presenters.
They found of all the directors on presenting boards, 23% were female.
The pair added an additional later this year with three categories: one star for companies "on the journey", having added a female director since last year; two stars for "continuing the journey" for those that have gone from one female director to two; and three stars for the "diversity heroes" with more than two female directors.
One star went to Jervois Global, Centaurus Metals and Genesis Minerals, for moving from zero female directors to one, while Greatland Gold and Australian Vanadium moved from zero to two.
Two stars went to Chalice Mining, Australian Strategic Materials, Liontown Resources and West African Resources for going from one female director to two.
Three stars for three or more female directors went to Lynas Rare Earths, IGO, Agnico Eagle Mines, AngloGold Ashanti and 29Metals.
Pass and Burnett's ‘Diamond in the Rough' award went to IGO and Great Boulder Resources, each for having 50% or more female directors.
There were still 18 presenting companies with no female directors, an improvement from 23 last year.
One of those companies is ASX 200 gold producer Capricorn Metals.
Executive chairman Mark Clark said the company was "absolutely" looking for a female director.
"But we don't want to just put a woman on for the sake of putting woman on," he said.
"We understand the skill sets have as a board and the skill sets that can really add value and we've been actively looking.
"Unfortunately, because of various conflicts, we haven't been able to lock in the right person yet but we're continuing that journey."
Clark pointed out that when he ran Regis Resources, the company appointed Fiona Morgan to the board.
"She was on board because she was a civil engineer and she could genuinely add something," he said.
"So we'd like to avoid just putting someone on as a tick-a-box exercise - that's not good for us and it's not good for the person.
"We'd like to find a couple of women who can make genuine contributions and change for our organisation, so we'd rather be a little bit patient and be an outlier until we find the right people."
