ROYALTY BILL--Final draft ready for comment

摘要

The release of the third and final draft of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Bill on December 6 2007 should have a better reception than the second draft released in October 2007. The previous draft was met with stiff opposition from the mining industry, imposing royalty on revenue rather than profit - a proposal that could have been particularly damaging to smaller and new mines that were not making a profit. Beneficiation will be awarded by making beneficia-tion related expenses deductible, as well as transport expenses, from gross sales. The dual rate system has effectively been jettisoned from this final draft of the bill.