Rio Tinto: Proposed Australia Mining Tax As Originally Formulated Is Dead

25th Jun 2010 04:23

PERTH (Dow Jones)--Rio Tinto Ltd. (RIO.AU) Iron Ore Chief Executive Sam Walsh said Friday that the Australian Government's resource super profits tax, as originally envisaged, is now "dead" following the change of prime minister on Thursday. "I think the tax as it was originally ascribed is dead," Walsh said. "I think that what we will see is something that will enable projects to go ahead," he said. "And I am very hopeful that will be sooner rather than later," he told reporters at the official opening of Rio's new Operations Centre in Perth. With all of Rio's development and expansion projects under review since the tax was announced in early May, it is important for Rio to sort out the issue "as quickly as we can", Walsh said. Asked whether it is realistic to expect a solution to the mining tax impasse before the upcoming Federal Election, Western Australia state Premier Colin Barnett said: "Not if it is to be done in a genuine way." "If the Federal Government is going to persist with this, I think they need to take probably at least six months to gain some understanding of the industry," Barnett told reporters at the Rio function. -By Stephen Bell, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; 61-8-9244-4243; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 24, 2010 23:23 ET (03:23 GMT)