$1B at stake in Roy Hill mine row

A wide-ranging row over the Roy Hill iron ore project between the developer and its head contractor has been described in court as a $1 billion dispute, according to The West Australian.

While the scale of the feud has yet to be defined publicly, the comment by a lawyer for Roy Hill Holdings on Monday suggested it went well beyond a $217 million claim the Gina Rinehart majority-owned company has made against Samsung C&T.

The fallout over the $10 billion Pilbara project has seen Roy Hill and Samsung fighting a series of court and arbitration battles in Perth, Singapore and Seoul. Among those is what Senior Counsel Marcus Solomon told the Supreme Court was a broad range of claims over significant sums which had been called “the big dispute” or “the $1 billion dispute”

Miners feel pinch

The Australian reports that the two great buffers that insulated Australia’s miners during the commodities price fall — a weakening dollar and slumping oil prices — have both reversed direction, taking the momentum out of the recent metals recovery and unwinding some of the industry’s hard-fought cost improvements.

While the US dollar-denominated prices of most commodities have risen since the start of the year, the gains have been tempered and in some cases completely eliminated by the 10% rise in the value of the Australian dollar.

At the same time, a 50% recovery in oil prices since January is driving up the cost of fuel, one of the mining industry’s biggest cost inputs.

The unfavourable currency and oil price movements raise the risk of marginal mines being squeezed out of business, particularly if the rally in commodity prices is not sustained.

The ATO reveals tax secrets of the rich list

Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting paid $466 million in tax in 2013-14, making the iron ore producer the biggest privately-owed corporate taxpayer in the country by far that year, reports the Australian Financial Review.

But another 98 companies with turnover of more than $200 million paid zero tax, providing Labor and the Greens with ammunition to castigate the Turnbull government for contemplating a company tax cut.

The Australian Tax Office on Tuesday published, for the first time, revenue, taxable income and tax payable for 321 private resident companies.