The NSW Minerals Council has welcomed the state government's commitment that mining royalties would not be increased in the upcoming budget.
"While uncertainty has been created by changes related to mining royalties in some other states, we welcome the certainty created by this commitment from the NSW Treasurer in relation to NSW mining royalties," NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee said yesterday.
Victoria last week confirmed it would introduce a royalty rate for gold production of 2.75% from July 1 next year, with the bulk of the funds likely to be paid by dual-listed Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL; ASX: KLA) which has the high-grade Fosterville mine.
The Minerals Council of Australia said Victoria's "new tax grab" was higher than Western Australia's gold royalty and would "put a wrecking ball" through regional development and destroy jobs.
WA has a gold royalty rate of 2.5% after a proposed increase to 3.75% was voted down in 2017.
The Minerals Council last year said Australia's mining industry had paid A$81 billion (US$56 billion) to state governments in royalties in the decade to 2016-2017, on top of more than $9 billion (US$6 billion) paid in payroll taxes to the states over the same period.
