why is oz down today, page-16

Dasa,
You are correct. Franking credits are only given to comapnies when they pay tax. OZL has a $770m tax loss, that based on my calcs will not be used up till 2013.

From my understanding, the tax that would be paid is recorded on the P & L, the tax loss is reduced on the bal sheet (an asset) and the extra cash appears on the cash flow statement.

Obdurate,
The reason a company has a DRP is that they do not want to pay a cash dividend. This normally happens when they wish to preserve capital. BHP used to have a DRP, but when the resources boom started, the cash flow was enough to pay a dividend and invest in the business and do a share buyback. So they stopped the DRP, becuase it would look a bit silly issueing shares and then buying them back.

P Hill currently has a 9 year mine life (including P Hill u/g.) (1 year mined), but it is an excellent facility

HT1