Reform overdue to drive growth and protect Australia from future downturn

The Indian state of Goa is looking to technology as a way to prevent the illegal transport of iron ore. The Times of India reports that the Goa government is examining the possibility of installing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on mining trucks to track the vehicle's movement carrying iron ore, as a part of the measures to curb transportation of illegal iron ore in the state.

New economic numbers from India, the latest forecasts for the country's voracious appetite for gold, iron ore and in particular coal and its plans for a sovereign wealth fund to look at mining deals abroad mean that the GVK-Rinehart tie-up could be the first of many.

The Daily Mercury reports Rio Tinto executive director Sam Walsh says the mining industry has to live with the new resources tax as the best deal that could be done with the current government. The final tax rate had been reduced from 40% to an effective 22.5% rate in the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT), he told the meeting organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia. At a breakfast meeting in Perth on Tuesday, Mr Walsh defended his company's role in closing the tax deal, saying junior miners left out of final negotiations now have a chance to have their concerns heard. On top of the MMRT, Australian miners also have to contend with a proposed carbon tax set to kick in mid-2012.

India infrastructure giant GVK on Saturday said it would pay $1.3 billion for Australia's Hancock Prospecting coal, rail and port projects and spend a further $10 billion developing them as it lines up energy supplies for upcoming power plants. Hancock's owner and richest woman in the world, Georgina Hope Rinehart will join GVK Power's board and retain a 21% stake in the mines. Rinehart, 57, is predicted to become the world’s richest person as the coal projects and Hancock's massive 100%-owned iron ore mines start producing by 2014 and earn her annual profits of as much as $10 billion. The so-called queen of iron ore who inherited a debt-ridden mining company from her father 20 years ago had already doubled her wealth from 2010 before Saturday's deal.

Sify reports rampant extraction of iron ore for export was steadily eating away India's national wealth, retired Supreme Court judge M.B. Shah, who heads a commission probing illegal mining in several states, said Saturday. Justice Shah is probing unlawful mining in Goa, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. His team has been camping in Goa for the last two days – visiting mining leases, interviewing bureaucrats and inspecting documents, related to the more than 100 operational iron ore mines in the state. Justice Shah, who heads the nine-member commission, would be submitting a comprehensive report on the Goa mining scandal to the central government within 45 days.

Western Australia’s manufacturing sector is losing nearly 150 jobs per day as workers chase high wages in mining.

JSW Steel today said shortage of iron ore had "severely impacted" its production this month and the company was running units at 75% capacity.

Preliminary estimates from Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES) study indicate that 2011 nonferrous exploration budgets will exceed $17 billion for expenditures related to precious and base metals, diamonds, uranium, and some industrial minerals.

Montréal, September 15, 2011 – “The new mining royalty regime enables us to attain the objectives that we set, i.e. to obtain from mining companies fair compensation for our natural resources without discouraging investment,” Minister of Finance and Minister of Revenue Raymond Bachand said today at a technical information session held jointly with Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife and Minister responsible for the Plan Nord Clément Gignac. Minister Bachand indicated that the mining royalties the government collected reached $304 million in 2010-2011, more than double the $133 million originally forecast in the 2011-2012 Budget.