shafting taxpayers

Hope I got it right this time.

Shovelanna handover makes WA biggest loser: State's lawyers
20-March-07 by AAP
The state of Western Australia would be the ultimate loser if Rio Tinto Ltd was stripped of an iron ore tenement after a courier failed to deliver renewal documents on time, the Supreme Court of WA heard today.

Lawyers acting for the state today said penalising Rio after a courier failed to deliver critical renewal documents would have a detrimental affect on investment in WA's mining industry.

The Supreme Court is hearing evidence on day two of a judicial hearing about the disputed Shovelanna tenement in the Pilbara region.

Junior explorer Cazaly Resources Ltd snared Shovelanna in 2005 after Rio let its licence expire, but the tenement was handed back to Rio after then resources minister John Bowler used his discretion under the state's Mining Act.

The state's barrister, Rob Mitchell, told the court that if Rio was to lose hundred's of million's of dollars worth of resources because of a "slip" by a courier, it would be detrimental to investment in the state.

Mr Mitchell argued that companies wouldn't invest in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure if resources could be "lost on a whim".

The judicial review continues.