Good report . Regarding Australia, Ontario went through majpr resource tax review in the early 1990's. They left mining alone, but increased forestry levies dramatically. The arguments were principally the same as Australia's today, except mining was not booming like forestry so they left it alone.

There is a significant likelihood the Aussie grab will not actually pass , principally because ALP may not control the final legislative process.

While we should hope it does not pass, it has sent sufficient shock waves through the majors that all Aussie Capex will likely be binned for at least one major election.

We have no reason to see Ontario even entertaining a tax grab, so we (NOT) can potentially be substantial beneficiaries in the longer term. However, it will take a lot more than Jim Flaherty's or Dalton McGuinty's smiling faces to impress the majors on this. Nothing short of an actual pro-mining development policy will impress these long term investors. Xstrata exemplifies the situation.

NOT and RoF generally should be the posterchild for a longer term policy, preferably a fixed-life tax- free mining zone. These are the only possible jobs that will get created in that locale, and governments should not be the first paid when everyone else has at least 5-7 years negative cash flow.