RSPT

Andrew Forrest, the chief executive of the Perth based mining company Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) has announced on Monday that New York based billionaire Phil Falcone has offloaded as much as $400 million worth of Fortescue shares during May and June. Mr. Forrest reveled that the hedge fund of Mr. Falcone (Harbinger Capital) has sold more than 100 million shares if the miner although previously ensured that it would stay on the register.

Chief executive of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) Andrew Forrest is holding talks with the executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting Gina Rinehart about sharing the iron ore railway facility of FMG at Western Australia. It is understood that earlier, the Fortescue boss had no plans to allow Hancock to have the access to the railways for its Roy Hill project since Mr. Forrest was planning to keep additional capacity for his Solomon Project.

Australian mining giant BHP Billiton (BHP) is planning to build a $US5 billion worth of iron ore hub in West Africa after facing uncertainty in its local expansion plans due to the resource super profit tax (RSPT) proposed by the Australian Government. BHP is planning to boost its operations in West Africa through Guinea and Liberia due to some political improvement in the region and increased buoyant demand for steel which saw record prices for iron ores.

Gas and petroleum based company Santos Limited (STO), which is involved in the business of exploration, production, marketing and transportation of hydrocarbons with primary focus on Australia is currently holding talks with China based energy company Sinopec over a $400 million worth of stake in its Queensland liquefied natural gas project which will allow Santos to get an upper hand in the competitive industry.

Tom Albanese, the chief executive of Rio Tinto (RIO) has stated that the Australian Government will turn into a risky “silent partner” of the Australia based miners through its proposed resource super-profits tax (RSPT) which has created a huge debate throughout the mining industry and believed to have negative impact over the mining sector of the country. Rio Tinto is currently doing as much as it can to prevent the RSPT which it believes will enhance the sovereign risk of Australia.