g,day moorookamick , thanks for stats on Qld royalities , we just sold our 2 Dajarra EPM's in the last few weeks ( Cu + U308 ) and now that i'm living in the quiet mining town of Sth.Brisbane i'll have to enroll in the electorate of Griffith. I can't put HIM last only because there'll be a Green candidate :) -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Super tax a chance to take investment from Australia.
Matt Chambers From: The Australian June 15, 2010
CHILE, the world's biggest copper producer, has joined Canada in describing the Rudd government's planned resource super-profits tax as a chance to strip global market share from Australia.
But rather than focusing on the level of the tax making Chile more competitive, Chile Mines Minister Laurence Golborne said it was the unstable nature of Australia's tax regime that could send investment dollars to Chile.
"The situation in Australia is a tremendous opportunity for Chile, if we can offer the mining sector stability and tranquility," Mr Golborne said in Santiago.
The focus on the changing of the tax rate, rather than the rate itself, plays to comments by Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese and his Xstrata counterpart Mick Davis that the tax is a major sovereign risk issue.
"Just because you have resources doesn't guarantee investments," Mr Golborne said.
"There are plenty of countries with mining potential, and investments will go to the countries which offer the best economic conditions."
Chile produces about 40 per cent of the world's copper, including from the Escondida mine, in which Rio and BHP Billiton have an interest.
The South American nation is trying to put in place a temporary and non-compulsory change in copper royalties to help finance reconstruction after a devastating earthquake in February.
The additional tax proposal, for this year and next, has a variable tax rate between 3.5 and 9 per cent, depending on margins and copper prices. It then reverts to 4 per cent from 2012 to 2017.
Canadian politicians applauded Australia's planned tax, saying it was an opportunity for Canada.
Yesterday, Vancouver-based Teck Resources boss Don Lindsay said the tax could be beneficial to him, because Teck did not produce from Australia.
"If Australia really does it, then logically there will be less investment there, particularly in coking coal. That would mean less coking coal, so prices would be higher," Mr Lindsay told Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.
"We went through a version of that (a tax increase) in Alberta when a new resource royalty regime was put in and there was a big backlash. Billions of dollars of investments were cancelled."
