It does get confusing comparing different royalty schemes because the WA royalty is more akin to GST - it gets charged regardless of how profitable the mining enterprise is, but clearly as revenue goes up the royalty also increases. The NT royalty is a larger percentage but its on net of expenses inclusive of certain eligible capital expenditure. Its a lot closer to a 2nd income tax charge. If a NT mine had increasing revenues with increasing costs then the royalty paid would stay the same rather than increase. Despite its higher percentage, the NT royalty could be an equal or lower fee than the WA royalty if the mine had very modest to low profit margins.
While Google was showing a 5% gold royalty fee, the PWC website below is showing the mineral resource royalty fee as being 15% and the page was last reviewed 15 August 2023 so it should be current. I wouldn't be banking on Ghana being a low royalty country just because they have a 10% free carry, I think its doing both. That noted, if paying market rates many operating costs will still be lower than somewhere like WA.
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