This should definitely help Coalspurs case for funding, more...

This should definitely help Coalspurs case for funding, more asian companies will be looking away from Queensland for there coal.

The immediate shock is the extent of the Queensland Government’s royalty gouge on coal revealed in today’s budget. The industry expected an effective royalty increase of about $2 a tonne and thought it could live with it.
Instead, Campbell Newman has smacked the miners with $4 a tonne – and that extra couple of dollars will make some mines uneconomic and would have tipped the balance against some of the new projects.

Higher mining royalties will increase costs and will have a detrimental impact on future international investment.


"The worse-than-feared hike in coal royalties announced in today's Queensland budget means more job losses, the risk of further mine closures and the near certainty that numerous major new coal projects will not see the light of day," said Michael Roche, chief executive of Queensland Resources Council, an industry body representing the mining firms.

Prices for coal, Australia's second biggest earner, have been under pressure amid slowing economies across Asia, although miners are still betting heavily on rising demand from the likes of China and India over the longer term.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) state government will increase the rate on coal royalties to 12.5 percent for prices between A$100 and A$150 per tonne ($100-$150/tonne), and to 15 percent for anything higher. That was estimated to raise A$1.6 billion over four years.

The state government said it would then give the industry certainty by guaranteeing no change to royalty rates for the following 10 years.

Benchmark Australian thermal coal prices are trading just below $92 a tonne while metallurgical coal, set by opaque quarterly contracts, is around $200 per tonne. Thermal coal is burned for power generation, while metallurgical is used in steel making.