A government taskforce is relying on a “misleading” report by Geoscience Australia to develop mining tax policy, according to a group of earth scientists.
The Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) say the Geoscience Australia report paints an overly rosy picture of Australia's mineral resource endowment, and the health of the industry.
It has been used by the federal government’s Policy Transition Group to develop a mining resource tax.
But AIG vice-president Andrew Waltho said that the report does not take all factors into account.
“The flaw in the report’s logic is that economic viability is not adequately accounted for, resulting in resources forming only a portion of the nation’s mineral inventory,” he said.
“This has profound implications for the manner in which the report’s findings have been used by the Policy Transition Group.”
The AIG sponsored a paper called ‘The Australian Mineral Exploration Industry: The Case for Fiscal Incentives’ which takes issue with the Geoscience Australia report.
The AIG called for the federal government to act to both promote greenfields exploration and reduce volatility in exploration investment as part of any new mining tax regime.
Failure to do so would strangle the industry, it claimed.
More than 85 per cent of Australia’s geoscientists, professional geologists and geophysicists work in the exploration, mining and energy resource industries, and are amongst the largest users of geospatial and surveying equipment.
