Why can't the Federal government put a spare $1bn or so of taxpayers money into creating real wealth for Australia by helping Australian mining companies, such as CMR and Macmin Silver, stay afloat for the next year or so until metal prices recover to more normal levels?
Companies such as these had recently started production after a decade or two of painstaking and expensive exploration and development and were hit in the home straight by an incredible and unprecedented combination of abnormal costs and delays topped off by a total collapse of metal prices.
The payback is that companies such as these would survive as going concerns to provide ongoing regional employment and to generate many billions of $$ in the future with the profits largely staying in Australia.
Some operations could go on care and maintenance while others could switch to exploration and development until metal prices come back to some degree of normality when mining could resume.
The alternative is an absolute fire sale of Australian resource treasures with most benefactors being overseas companies. This is not to mention the incredible disruption and pain at the personal and business level and the movement of skills and expertise out of the industry.
Farmers get drought relief, why can't the Australian mining industry get some short-term assistance in the national interest?
CMR Price at posting:
15.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
