"As a BHP shareholder, I don't believe they are acting in my...

"As a BHP shareholder, I don't believe they are acting in my interests at all. They have wiped substantial value off my investment portfolio. And if they succeed in sending other companies that I have invested in, to the wall, that's not helping either."

Not sure how long you've been a shareholder for but BHP announced it's expansion projects in 2011, at a time where Iron ore prices and China's GDP growth were extremely high. I'd say that was acting in it's shareholders best interest. At that time poor economic conditions and major increase in supply by its competitors would have been a guess at best.
Also it's not their problem that you have failed to diversify your portfolio. Why you would hold more than 1 iron ore company is beyond me. It's in BHP's shareholders (like yourself)best interest to "send their competitors to the wall".

"I would like to see royalties increased for volumes that are produced in excess of market requirements. My thinking is that WA could recover its budget shortfall simply be imposing higher royalties on tonnage about a predefined limit (on all mining companies), this would either produce more royalty revenue through increased payments on excesses, or would see the production reduced and the IO price recovery would produce more royalty revenue through higher prices. Win / Win for WA."

Let me extend this short sighted scenario for you. Increasing royalties would likely lead to BHP, FMG and RIO being unprofitable above the "predefined" limit and it would have to decrease production. Who are the winners? Iron ore price increases a little, so per tonne all miners will increase profit margins.


However, this won't last long because Vale's Carajas S11D iron ore project will come into play next year which will gobble up all the market share that all our major miners had forcefully had to let go.

With a decrease in production by all 3 Australian miners, royalty revenue will decrease as iron ore prices stay low. Years down the track you are looking at Vale absolutely dominating the iron ore market because of a short sighted policy that the WA government decided to implement.

Makes me laugh when some bananas come to HC and think they can run a multinational company better than their CEO's with their boards and the best economists and game theorists in the world.

IMO only

Stef