[miningmx.com] – AFRICAN governments must resist the temptation to increase taxes during times of mining downturn, said Paladin Energy MD, John Boshoff.
Speaking in Perth at the Africa Down Under conference, Boshoff said: “To us, this is a no brainer. We understand why the temptation exists – to increase taxes during mining downturn to retain revenue streams.
But it is during these hard times with low commodity prices that miners have already cut costs where possible – just to survive. Government and miners need to work in partnership,” he said.
“We need to learn to ride out the poor season, recognising the key benefit from a mine is from the relatively constant cost of production and the “revenue’ thus derived to the local economy,” Boshoff said.
