Thursday, July 1, 2010

Compromise on Australian Taxing

No real surprise here - with the change in prime ministers in Australia, a compromise on the controversial mining tax was soon to come.

The deal that came out of this process is a pretty typical compromise, meaning both sides have reason to gripe. The tax was pulled back on minerals; it will now cover iron ore and coal at a 30% rate. Onshore oil and gas, though, will still carry the 40% rate. Keep in mind, this is 30/40% *after* the companies have earned a 6% return.

Certainly this is good news for BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP), Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP), Xstrata and the like. It's also exceptionally good news for producers of minerals like copper (Xstrata is big there), gold, zinc, rare earth elements, and so on.

Ultimately this still knocks Australia down a few rungs in the ranks of most mining-friendly nations, but it's clearly not as bad as it could have been. For the rare earth and gold miners, it's basically a win. Too bad, then, for companies like Fortescue and Macarthur which are much more leveraged to iron and coal, respectively, but 30% is still better than the original 40%.

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