Miners hit as MRRT fails
Resource companies will forfeit $1.1 billion in exploration tax deductions in a crackdown targeting takeovers of small explorers, as the government seeks to offset weak revenue from its botched minerals resource rent tax (MRRT), according to the Australian Financial Review.
The MRRT continues to bleed revenue. It will raise about $200 million this financial year, 90% short of the already heavily watered down $2 billion estimated in the mid-year budget update in October.
Over the five years to 2016-17, the MRRT, levied on iron ore and coal, is projected to yield $5.5 billion, less than half the previous forecast.
As the government searches for alternative revenue sources, Labor will limit the type of mining activities eligible for the exploration concession, by excluding mining rights and information from immediate deduction.
Maitland a ‘menace’, ICAC told
Former union boss John Maitland was described by a business associate as a “f---ing menace” in an email sent before he helped secure a coal exploration licence for a company he chaired, a NSW corruption inquiry has heard, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The December 10, 2008, email from Newcastle businessman Craig Ransley to his business partner, Andrew Poole, and two other associates alluded to Mr Maitland’s unwanted involvement in a separate application for a coal exploration licence in Queensland.
Ransley co-founded private company Doyles Creek Mining, which was given a lucrative coal exploration licence over land in the NSW Hunter Valley in December 2008.
Rio softens iron ore stance
Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh has raised the prospect of slowing a $US5 billion Pilbara iron ore mine expansion following concerns from shareholders the miner was taking too aggressive an approach to expansion, according to the Australian Financial Review.
In a presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Metals, Mining & Steel conference in Barcelona on Tuesday, Walsh appeared to soften his rhetoric when discussing long-held plans to boost iron ore production to 360 million tonnes a year by 2015.
“We have multiple pathways on the 360 mines,” Walsh said.
“The decisions will be made in late 2013 and in early 2014.
“Depending on the market, we could choose to develop new mines to quickly deliver tonnes. Or we could conserve cash and fill some capacity with incremental tonnes from existing mines at much lower capital intensity.”
