See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page504?oid=107858&sn=Detail&pid=92730.

See http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20100707/news18.htm.

This was backed by real, or vacuous threats, to quit the country’s shores – or at least withdraw from some key projects.

In fact, none of the companies have made concrete moves to do so, while investors’ confidence in the industry, over the past 2 months, hasn’t appeared to be significantly dented. Although Australia’s fiscal policy has been in disarray for some time – not least following the September 2008 meltdown – the country is still the world’s biggest supplier of coking coal, alumina, lead and iron ore -  the three global giants would have cut off big chunks of their noses, had they actually followed through on their threats.

The compromise measures, now apparently agreed between miners and government, are in some respects not significantly different from the discredited “Super Profits” tax, except insofar as applying a tax rate of 30%, as opposed to 40%, charging at a lower “trigger point”, and with fewer companies subject to the new measures.

The new tax will be called a “Resource Rent” – a well-worn concept, no doubt calculated to provoke far less anxiety than the spectre of companies ripping off the state and people and walking away with billions off ill-gotten gains.

In reality, however, while the former proposal was estimated to recoup Aus$12 billion in revenue for the government by 2012, the revised taxation regime is likely to garner only a little less (around Aus$10-11 billion).

Mind you, there’s quite a lot to which the “missing” billion might have gone. Not least in increased dues to the Aboriginal communities who have had to sacrifice an increasing amount of their territory and resources to mining over the past 25 years.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10228.

See also:

Fortescue says new mining law favours multi-nationals

Australia’s watered down tax on mining profits favours multi-nationals and diversified commodity producers at the expense of smaller companies, iron ore miner Fortescue Metals told a government hearing.

See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=107866&sn=Detail&pid=92730.

The “super profits tax” has been discarded in favour of a resources rent tax that has been endorsed by key global miners including London-listed BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata.

See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=107295&sn=Detail.

Mining industry roars back to life

Share prices soared and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stalled investments got the green light after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a deal on the controversial resources tax.

See http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/02/2943091.htm.

See http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/23/2934885.htm.

Businesses in the extractive industries are raising their game when it comes to human rights, but there’s some way to go yet.

This article gives some case studies involving Rio Tinto.

See http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=866A30C1-76FC-42E4-9C05-9E3237F82781.

A precarious peace pact has been struck between the Australian mining lobbies and the Federal Government following the sudden departure of Kevin Rudd as Australian Labor Party Leader and thus the Prime Ministership. The argument over proposed higher tax rates on mining companies – including London-listed BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto – was one of the reasons for Rudd’s resignation.

See http://www.mineweb.co.za/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=106788&sn=Detail&pid=102055.

Australian mining companies were first to suggest tax review

Mining companies now unhappy with Australia’s proposed 40 percent royalty tax were the first to suggest a review of payments to the state, chief economist at Australia’s trade commission Tim Harcourt said. Global miner Rio Tinto has said it would be forced to reconsider investing in Australia if the government insisted on a tax on so-called super profits, while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has denied talk of a quick deal with miners over the tax row.

See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page504?oid=106304&sn=Detail.

S&P raises Rio Tinto outlook from stable to positive

Credit rating agency Standard and Poors’ positive outlook for Rio Tinto could be harmed by Australia’s proposed 40% resources super profit tax (but no mention in this article of the harm done by Rio Tinto…..).

See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page67?oid=106500&sn=Detail&pid=92730.

Rio Tinto’s subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL) is on record as wanting to return to the eponymous Pacific island, and re-open one of the most conflict-ridden mines in recent history. Although the Panguna mine was closed down by militants in 1989, two tanks which formerly fuelled its operations are now leaking heavy oil into the ground, only a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean. BCL’s chairman has dismissed the dangers of the spill, claiming it is “only minor”. Although the recently elected new president of Bougainville, John Momis, is on record as favouring the revival of Panguna, no official decision has yet been taken. There are still significant numbers of Bougainvilleans who oppose the return of BCL or other mining companies, and some former landowners who have pledged to oppose a re-opening at any cost.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10180.

Reopening of mine possible: Momis

THE reopening of the Panguna mine in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville is a good possibility under the new regime, newly-elected president John Momis said last Friday. “I want the mine to reopen. However, this issue will depend mostly on the outcome of consultation and consensual meetings between the landowners and the administration,” he said in his first official trip. Momis said the landowners would be consulted and their consent sought as this was the Melanesian way of decision-making. “Realistically, this reopening will help generate money for the people to participate in the economy,” he added.

See http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/10139.

BCL shares rise on mine rumours

SPECULATION about reopening the Panguna copper/gold mine has resulted in shares of Bougainville Copper Limited hitting an all-time high of 80 cents (K2.02) on the Australian Stock Exchange. This is the highest share price level reached since the mine closed 20 years ago.

See http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20100622/business.htm.

Death of leading ally of Bougainville independence movement

HUMAN rights activist Rosemarie Gillespie, also known as Waratah Rose, has died at 69 after suffering a stroke. A founder of the Bougainville Freedom Movement, Ms Gillespie, a lawyer, wrote books and made films about her experiences and observations.She was a political prisoner in Fiji in a military coup in 1987, was a human shield during the 2003 Iraq war, and campaigned against a military blockade on Bougainville in the 1990s, according to her website. She is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, two sisters and a brother.

See http://www.theage.com.au/national/waratah-rose-dies-20100622-yvua.html

and http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/waratah-rose-has-died-in-melbourne-20100622-yua8.html.

We just ignited a disaster beyond our technical control. Why are we on the brink of doing it again? Like Deepwater Horizon and Fermi, these new nukes could ignite disasters beyond our technological control—and our worst nightmares. Like BP, their builders would enjoy financial liability limits dwarfed by damage they could do. After 50 years, this industry can’t get private financing, can’t get private liability insurance and has no solution for its wastes. The Gulf gusher bears the simple lesson that technologies that require liability limits will rapidly exceed them, and must not be deployed. No US nuclear utility has sufficient capital resources to cover the damages from a reactor disaster, which is one reason taxpayers are targeted as the ultimate underwriters. By all accounts, despite the horrors of the Gulf, the administration still wants legislation that will expand deepwater drilling and atomic technologies that are simply beyond our control but that fund apparently unstoppable dividends for corporations like BP.

See http://www.alternet.org/environment/147162.

Dark Water

Uranium mining is scarring the landscape, harming the planet and posing dire health consequences in communities throughout the Southwest of the United States.

See the six minute video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=640Gef94dVE.

Tenner Films

A unique documentary film project exploring the personal stories and social impacts of the world’s most controversial energy source – nuclear power.

See http://www.tennerfilms.com/.

Who wants nuclear power?  Not Wales, or Scotland…they want renewables

The Welsh Assembly Government’s new Energy Policy Statement ‘A Low Carbon Revolution’, sets out an approach to accelerating the transition to a low carbon energy economy in Wales, focusing on efficiency measures and the use of indigenous renewable forms of energy such as marine, wind, solar and biomass. It claims that by 2025 around 40% of electricity in Wales could come from marine sources and a third from wind.

See http://environmentalresearchweb.org/blog/2010/06/who-wants-nuclear-power-part-1.html.

Church in Canada Calls for Ban on Nuclear Wastes

The United Church, Saskatchewan’s largest religious organization, has entered the debate on nuclear wastes. Its annual conference May 28th in Moose Jaw passed a resolution “prohibiting the transport or storage of high level nuclear waste across Saskatchewan”. This comes when the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is looking for a “willing community” to take nuclear wastes; which seems orchestrated, as last year the government-appointed Uranium Development Partnership (UDP) recommended the same thing.

See http://oen.ca/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=235&cntnt01dateformat=%25b%20%25d%2C%20%25Y&cntnt01returnid=75.

Support grows for Australian unions who have banned members from working in the nuclear industry

Largely unreported in the British press, the Victorian branch of the ETU has given its full support to the Queensland and the Northern Territories branches’ decision to ban members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power plants or any part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) says other unions have expressed strong support for the campaign against uranium, which it has labelled the “new asbestos” of the workplace. Dr Caldicott said Australia’s uranium export industry meant the nation was “selling cancer and we’re selling nuclear weapons.”

See http://www.getnoticedonline.co.uk/news/general-news/radiation-free-lakeland-backs-aussie-unions-nuclear-stance.html.

See http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/union-plan-to-starve-industry-of-labour-20100601-wts3.html.

See http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20100609-274720/Flatulent-dog-to-trumpet-Australian-mining-industry.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposed ‘super tax’ on miners is still causing the industry to vent its collective spleen in anger.

Xstrata have added to the list of companies promising to cancel expansion if the tax pushes through.

Rio Tinto is one of the latest companies to comment. At their delayed Australian AGM, CEO Tom Albanese told shareholders, “we are concerned that other countries may see this as something they want to try out, too.” That sounds almost like a challenge to other countries, many of whom have been reflecting on this issue. If other countries take this up as well, then where will the companies have to flee to? It appears that mining legislative issues are switching from the 90s ‘race to the bottom’ to a ‘race to the top’.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10151.

See also: Australian mining tax “deeply flawed” BHP Billiton

According to the transnational miner, the Australian government needs to go back to the drawing board on its proposed tax. See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=105811&sn=Detail&pid=92730.

See http://www.smh.com.au/national/kakadu-being-poisoned-by-rio-tinto-mine-group-warns-20100523-w42y.html.

See http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/claims-of-hypocrisy-as-rio-unilaterally-cuts-super-benefits/story-e6frg8zx-1225869371970.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10118.