Tax aside, Australia's on the money, says Friedland
MINING billionaire Robert Friedland had some comforting news for the industry yesterday, declaring that Australia did not need to worry about the financial travails of Europe and that global warming was much more desirable than global cooling.
Fronting a Melbourne Mining Club lunch, the Ivanhoe Mines boss said mining in Mongolia, where Ivanhoe has a 66 per cent stake in the $US10 billion ($9.9bn) Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, and where a plan by MPs to grab a bigger stake in the project was recently knocked on the head, was less politically risky than mining in Australia.
He also reprised comments about Julia Gillard made in Kalgoorlie four months ago, where he would refer to her only as "your redhead" and said she was one of the worst cases of politicians "who bribe you with your own money".
The good news was that China's growth and demand for minerals would serve the nation well, concerns about Europe were largely driven by press hysteria, and climate change had been happening for eons, so it was not really something to be concerned about.
"You have so much inherent wealth, it's hard to kill it. You can beat it with a mallet and it will still look better than anything else," Mr Friedland said.
He called the carbon tax a "bizarre form of self-punishment", especially Australia's decision to tax coal gas emitted into the atmosphere from open-pit mines.
"If you really want to tax things that emit methane, first you have to start by killing the family dog and then killing all the cows, so in Mongolia they will not be taxing its coal," Mr Friedland said.
The entrepreneur's views on man-made climate change are held by many in the mining industry but few are prepared to go on the record.
"The temperature of the world has always changed, so when people freak out and say we have to do something about climate change, that is a ludicrously bizarre proposition because the climate always changes," Mr Friedland said.
"I much prefer global warming to global colding. In the colding cycles (in the US) we had glaciers that went all the way to St Louis that were two miles thick."
Mr Friedland earned his wealth through shoring up Oyu Tolgoi (which is now being built by Ivanhoe's 49 per cent shareholder, Rio Tinto) and before that through the discovery of the Voisey's Bay nickel deposit in Canada.
The Chicago-born Canadian has become a regular speaker at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum in Kalgoorlie and has links to Australia through the spin-off of Ivanhoe Australia. Ivanhoe's often uneasy relationship with Rio is set to evolve this month when a dispute over a shareholder rights plan designed to stop Rio acquiring a greater stake in Ivanhoe without paying a takeover premium is decided by an independent arbitrator.
Mr Friedland said there was only a small probability a deal with China to supply power to Oyu Tolgoi would not come off and first production would be delayed from 2013 because China was so keen for the copper.
Rio, which has gained its stake in Ivanhoe and the right to operate Oyu Tolgoi by providing most of the financing to date, has said if an agreement is not done soon, first copper could be delayed.
Fronting a Melbourne Mining Club lunch, the Ivanhoe Mines boss said mining in Mongolia, where Ivanhoe has a 66 per cent stake in the $US10 billion ($9.9bn) Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, and where a plan by MPs to grab a bigger stake in the project was recently knocked on the head, was less politically risky than mining in Australia.
He also reprised comments about Julia Gillard made in Kalgoorlie four months ago, where he would refer to her only as "your redhead" and said she was one of the worst cases of politicians "who bribe you with your own money".
The good news was that China's growth and demand for minerals would serve the nation well, concerns about Europe were largely driven by press hysteria, and climate change had been happening for eons, so it was not really something to be concerned about.
"You have so much inherent wealth, it's hard to kill it. You can beat it with a mallet and it will still look better than anything else," Mr Friedland said.
He called the carbon tax a "bizarre form of self-punishment", especially Australia's decision to tax coal gas emitted into the atmosphere from open-pit mines.
"If you really want to tax things that emit methane, first you have to start by killing the family dog and then killing all the cows, so in Mongolia they will not be taxing its coal," Mr Friedland said.
The entrepreneur's views on man-made climate change are held by many in the mining industry but few are prepared to go on the record.
"The temperature of the world has always changed, so when people freak out and say we have to do something about climate change, that is a ludicrously bizarre proposition because the climate always changes," Mr Friedland said.
"I much prefer global warming to global colding. In the colding cycles (in the US) we had glaciers that went all the way to St Louis that were two miles thick."
Mr Friedland earned his wealth through shoring up Oyu Tolgoi (which is now being built by Ivanhoe's 49 per cent shareholder, Rio Tinto) and before that through the discovery of the Voisey's Bay nickel deposit in Canada.
The Chicago-born Canadian has become a regular speaker at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum in Kalgoorlie and has links to Australia through the spin-off of Ivanhoe Australia. Ivanhoe's often uneasy relationship with Rio is set to evolve this month when a dispute over a shareholder rights plan designed to stop Rio acquiring a greater stake in Ivanhoe without paying a takeover premium is decided by an independent arbitrator.
Mr Friedland said there was only a small probability a deal with China to supply power to Oyu Tolgoi would not come off and first production would be delayed from 2013 because China was so keen for the copper.
Rio, which has gained its stake in Ivanhoe and the right to operate Oyu Tolgoi by providing most of the financing to date, has said if an agreement is not done soon, first copper could be delayed.
Comments
Post a Comment