hey BRI would be interested in your take on the funding scheme...

hey BR

I would be interested in your take on the funding scheme rules.

Mine goes like this:

the key threshold eligibility conditions of financial credibility and project delivery 'track record' have obviouy been drawn because the Govt cannot allow another HRL fiasco to develop.

If the Vic and Feds agree to hand over another serious chunk of taxpayer cash and nothing results because the project does not have any genuine financial or project delivery muscle behind it (like HRL) they would become a laughing stock.

In that regard the terms of the scheme look like a case of 'once bitten, twice shy.'

On any reading of the scheme rules it is obvious that any project that can't provide evidence of BOTH a credible funding pathway to commercialisation AND an active project participant that has a 'proven track record' of delivering the kind of project for which funding is sought will not proceed beyond the first stage.

It is interesting that the scheme fits EXACTLY with the first requirement Tata Power laid down to the Govt in October 2011 before they would commit to developing a BCE export project in Victoria - namely demo plant co-funding between Tata and the Govt.

Has the scheme in fact been drawn primarily to meet that pre-condition? If so, then Tata Power moving (through ownership of exergen) into position as the driving force behind the 'brown coal pilbara' seems to be a done deal.

While the funding scheme is (as it has to be) framed to be open to all comers, the eligibility criteria means that it is in truth only open to those coal upgrade techs that are DIRECTLY linked to established, cashed up industry players, who also have a 'proven track record' in developing similar resource projects.

tata/exergen's other pre-requisite was the grant of a billion tonne resource in the S7.

judging by Minister O'Briens comments in announcing the scheme, that is not far away either.

DYOR