The uncertainty over the new mining tax does not seem to be affecting the opening of a new mine in Southern Australia. The proposed Mineral Resource Rent Tax and its previous avatar have been held responsible for reduced investments in mines and ongoing projects around the country.
However the tax changes do not seem to be affecting IMX Resources as they officially opened their Cairn Hill Mine about 55 km south east of Coober Pedy. It is hoping to be able to ship 7.3 million tonnes of high grade iron ore, copper and gold from the mine in the next 5 years to China for processing.
The magnetite mined at Cairn Hill will be transferred in containers for railing to port Adelaide and then shipped to Yingkou in North Eastern China to be processed into a premium concentrate.
The Managing Director of IMX Resources, Duncan McBain said that while they were still uncertain about what the effect of the proposed mining tax would be on the company they were hoping that the impact on them would be relatively minor.
He based this on the fact that negotiations in terms of excluding magnetite were being considered as it needed processing and iron ore in the Pilbara region was shipped directly.