Miners express confidence despite RSPT

Smaller mining companies have begun speaking out against claims the RSPT will adversley affect business.

Atlantic Resources claims the RSPT will not materially impact its Windimurra Vanadium mine operations, saying despite the obvious impact the super profits tax will have on the industry, the project's large capital base will protect it from being affected by the proposed tax.

"Atlantic strongly opposes the proposed RSPT and believes the design and structure of this new tax will have a negative impact on the resources industry in Australia and raises profound implications for Australia's sovereign risk rating," a statement from Atlantic said.

"Notwithstanding this view, following analysis of the implications of the RSPT, Atlantic has concluded the RSPT will have minimal impact on the Windimurra vanadium project due to the project's large existing capital base and the circumstances under which the project will be acquired from the receiver of Midwest Vanadium."

Iron ore miner Brockman Resources also released a statement, with the aim of correcting "inaccurate market speculation arising from the uncertainty created by the federal government's proposed RSPT.

Brockman said its recently developed strategic relationship with Sinosteel Australia has been in no way adversely affected by the speculation over the affect the RSPT will have on the mining industry, as suggested by "claims made in a Dow Jones Newswire report".

Atlantic, a former pearl marketing company, plans to develop the partly-constructed Windimurra Vanadium mine under a joint venture with Mineral Resources.

The project was stalled when the previous owner Midwest Vanadium (MVPL) and parent entity Windimurra Vanadium were placed in voluntary administration in February last year.

Mineral Resources and Atlantic last month said they had reached agreement with the secured lenders to MVPL to acquire a 90 per cent interest in that company.

The joint venture would procure new project finance of about $90 million-$100 million to complete construction and commission the project, in return for the 90 per cent interest in MVPL.

The existing lenders would be granted a 10 per cent interest in the project near Mt Magnet, which is said to host one of the world's largest vanadium deposits.

Atlantic would hold 62.5 per cent of MVPL and Mineral Resources would hold 27.5 per cent of MVPL.

The joint venture said on Monday that it expected the acquisition to be complete by June 30.

"Since we announced the agreement to acquire an interest in Windimurra, we have identified a number of cost savings that further improve the project economics," Atlantic said.

Shares in Atlantic were up 0.1 cents, or 2.38 per cent, at 4.3 cents at 1127 AEST, while Mineral Resources shares had gained 11 cents, or 1.68 per cent, to $6.67.

Separately, the Minerals Council of Australia said the Rudd government's claim over the weekend that the mining sector pays between 13 to 17 per cent corporate tax had been contradicted by official data from the Australian Taxation Office.

Analysis of the data showed the average corporate tax rate paid by the mining sector in 2007/08 was 27.81 per cent.

"When mining company royalty payments are added, the effective tax rate paid by Australia's mining sector increases to 41.3 per cent," the Minerals Council said in a statement on Monday.