Antinuclear

Uranium companies exempt from Australia’s Minerals and Resources Rent Tax

the enormous deductions that BHP, Rio and Xstrata will enjoy…The proposed MRRT was borne out of private consultations between the government and mining giants BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata. It was then fleshed out by a government advisory group known as the policy transition group, chaired by former BHP chairman Don Argus…

…BHP’s expanding Olympic Dam project in South Australia is also excluded from the MRRT. This is a project with the world’s largest uranium deposit, fourth-largest copper deposit and fifth-largest gold deposit…….

Mining tax a mystery tour,Sydney Morning Herald, June 13, 2011 “……After the savage battle with the miners reached boiling point 12 months ago, when mining companies spent more than $20 million on an anti-mining-tax advertising campaign, many believed the worst of the hostilities had finished……the deductions given to the multinational, multi-commodity companies are so large as to protect them from retrospectivity that they are unlikely to make a commensurate contribution to this tax,” Forrest said in his letter………

He also wrote about his concerns that the three companies that privately negotiated the minerals and resources rent tax, MRRT – Rio, BHP and Xstrata – would not contribute commensurately to the $7.4 billion of MRRT that Treasury expects to raise in the first two years. “No one can see how you will raise this amount given the enormous deductions that BHP, Rio and Xstrata will enjoy in the first years of the tax.”……

The proposed MRRT was borne out of private consultations between the government and mining giants BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata. It was then fleshed out by a government advisory group known as the policy transition group, chaired by former BHP chairman Don Argus,…..The problem with the MRRT is it is seen by many in the industry, including tax experts and consultants such as Henry Ergas, as complex, onerous to administer, and unfair.

It is easy to see why. First, the tax only includes the coal and iron ore industry, not all non-renewable mining resources such as uranium, gold, copper and nickel, as originally intended…….

BHP’s expanding Olympic Dam project in South Australia is also excluded from the MRRT. This is a project with the world’s largest uranium deposit, fourth-largest copper deposit and fifth-largest gold deposit…….

Mining tax a mystery tour

June 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics