Yes we as citizens and owners of the resources want just...

Yes we as citizens and owners of the resources want just returns, however if we over tax those resources we will lose. It's a global market for these companies and if we price our resources out of that global market they will simply go to other countries that offer a better deal. In the end what is paramount to a companies is to increase shareholder wealth. There are many dimensions to generating that wealth from resources tax, labour cost, transport costs, etc etc however a resources tax is an underlying determinant of whether there would be an intent to do business. It may be more palatable to tax the outputs rather than the inputs.