How open the government would be to surrendering just that little bit more of its once fabulous iron ore revenue stream, well, only time will tell. What is rather more certain, apparently, is that Premier Colin Barnett is getting ready to raise the stakes in his stare-off with Rio and BHP.
Barnett has described their individual decisions to introduce new supply to a saturated market as destructive madness. In this he walks in lock-step with every other producer including Fortescue and with one of the Third Force's potential suitors, Glencore. What makes Barnett's irritation rather more dangerous is that he is the only one of the critics that could have the power to do something about it.
There is a clause in each and every one of WA's iron ore mining agreements that says an operator must "ship from the company's wharf all iron ore mined from the minerals lease and sold and use its best endeavours to obtain therefore the best price possible having regard to market conditions from time to time prevailing".
The agreements say a lot more about the responsibilities of the miners.But it is Barnett's firm view that the miners are required to manufacture the best price they can. And there is very well-informed speculation that this is the point that Barnett intends to labour in meetings that he will schedule with the local bosses of Rio and BHP over the coming weeks, and that he will again remind them that they require further state approval of retention licences and of future development plans.
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