Mining Royalties and Renewable Energy
Revenue from mining is a one off. Minerals are not renewable and once gone they can not be mined again. There is no justification whatsoever for mining our family jewels if we plan to waste this money on current consumption. All the revenue from mining must be used to set up infrastructure which will benefit future generations . These minerals belong to them just as much as they belong to us. One very good sector in which to invest this money is renewable energy. The benefits of having New Zealand totally independent of overseas energy are too obvious to warrant rehashing yet again and the benefit of energy independence extends far into the future to benefit our great great grandchildren. Thankfully, our grandfathers built the hydro electric dams which provide us with half of our electricity today.
One thing must be guarded against. Mining revenue must not be used to displace money from other sources which otherwise would have been put into renewable energy. This is creative accounting at its worst. Mining revenue must be added to the other funds to add to our already high proportion of renewably generated energy. Such funds can be invested directly, in, for instance a State Owned Windfarm (SOE) or instead, can be leveraged by providing research funds or incentives which tip the viability of a renewable energy source towards economic feasibility.
Mining royalties have been reported as 1% of the sales value of the mineral sold. If this is the "whole story" then there is no justification for selling off our family jewels for a mess of pottage. I note the intention mentioned in the New Zealand Energy Strategy to review the royalty situation, presumably the way the Australian Rudd government recently attempted. This is good. Once sorted out, these increased royalties should be paid into the Mine Revenue Account for use in development which creates long term benefits. However, the bare royalty payment is not the whole story.
Does a mine pay income tax in addition to its royalty payment? If so, the tax must be credited to the Mine Revenue Account. Without the mine, this stream of revenue would not come to the government. Next, every employee of the mine pays income tax. This is a revenue stream to the government which would not exist if the mine was not operating. Into the Mine Revenue Account also. Every purchase by the mine and its employees of everything from a new vehicle to a roll of toilet paper attracts GST at 12.5% (soon to rise). Into the Mine Revenue Account. And then there are the downstream effects. For instance, a mine employee buys his food at a local super market which pays taxes and whose employees pay taxes. Give this one to your resident math boffin. It is an infinite converging series with a finite sum. If you have a good mathematician on board, he will be able to work out how much more of the tax take should go into the Mine Revenue Account.
Looking at the above, it turns out that the revenue from a mine to the government goes far beyond the bare royalties and all this revenue should be used for development that benefits future generations. (in addition, remember, to funds that would have been spent on this if the mine didn't exist).
The next question is what we do with the minerals we have mined. Let's use iron sands as an example. Are we going to sell off the raw mineral with just the gangue (waste) removed the way Australia does. This is like selling off a Fabergé egg for the price of the gold it contains. At the very least we should be selling refined ingots of steel but let's get more ambitious. How about selling railway lines, machine tools and even car parts. How about selling our own electric car with a difference.
We are fixated on the idea that we could never compete with the big boys overseas. We could never, for instance compete with Hollywood, could we? Well we could and we did. Lets not sell New Zealand short. By adding value to our mineral resources, far more money will go into the Mine Revenue Account to be used for renewable energy infrastructure and other long term development. If, at present, we are not able to beneficiate our mineral resources and sell value-added-products, let's leave them in the ground until we have achieved the necessary level of sophistication. They are only going to increase in value as the years go by and other countries use up their non-renewable resources.
However we use our minerals, let us use this windfall, one-off source of revenue to benefit future generations. We couldn't do better than to use this revenue to ensure New Zealand's energy independence.
Showing posts with label minerals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minerals. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Suicide
I live in New Zealand, one of the most beautiful parts of the world with arguably the most just and responsive government to the needs of its people. I live amongst a people of, by and large, great sensitivity to the needs and rights of others. Our business tends to be fairly low pressure when compared with many parts of the world. Race relations, while sometimes a little turbulent, are an example to the rest of the world in other countries where a first people were "invaded" by Northern Europeans. For all of this our suicide rate is said to be amongst the highest in the world. I can't 'figure it'. We have, to a large extent the same genetic make up as Canada, Britain, the USA, Australia and a whole range of other countries. There seems to be only one thing left that makes sense.
Clearly there must be a lot of different causes for a person to take their own life but if, as the above paragraph suggests, outside pressure and genetic make up can be eliminated as causes of our out of the ordinary rate, it must be something else. I suspect it may be found in our soil. I know that this sounds pretty far fetched at first glance but bear with me. Certain minerals as diverse as zinc, cobalt, magnesium, selenium and so forth are the vital ingredient in a range of hormones, enzymes and co-enzymes in the body. Ingest less than the optimum amount of any of these minerals and you will be functioning at less than your potential. You will feel somewhat unwell, somewhat unhealthy, somewhat out of balance. Have a total lack of one of these vital nutrients and you will simply die. Take someone with some other tendency toward self distruction (like a teenager in the throws of getting used to a whole range of new hormones or someone who has just broken up with a loved one) and the lack of a vital mineral with its associated feeling of unease, of unwellness, could send them over the edge.
This is only anecdotal evidence but I have lived for more than a decade in each of three other countries. I didn't know, or know of a single person in any of these countries that committed suicide. I haven't yet been a decade in New Zealand and I know of 11 at last count. That is I know someone personally who knew a suicide victim.
It would be very difficult to get a handle on this problem; to prove the hypothesis one way or another. It would be especially difficult since any investigation would come into conflict with families who are at their most vulnerable and upset. I suspect what we need to do is to establish the levels of all these nutrients which are necessary in the body for full functioning. They may not even be the same for people of different genetic make up or in different environments which further complicates the picture. We need to take biopsies of every person who does commit suicide and also biopsies of others, both in New Zealand and in other countries, to establish a base line. Unfortunately, only a few of these nutrients can be assayed by taking hair samples. If hair was adequate for all assays, the study would be greatly simplified. Some minerals need to be assayed from other parts of the body.
It is known that various New Zealand soils are lacking in various of the essential minerals so there is a reasonable chance that Kiwi's in various locations lack some of these minerals. If all that is necessary to stop this horrible waste of life is a little mineral pill or the fertilization of our fields with a few trace minerals, it would be a crime not to find it out and take the necessary corrective action. If a mineral lack is responsible for a high suicide rate, it is also responsible for less than "total wellness" amongst lots of people who don't take their own life. Selenium, for instance, is known to protect against cancer and joint problems and most Kiwi sheep farmers make sure that their sheep get enough supplementary selenium. Without enough selenium the sheep do not do well at all and there is simply not enough natural selenium in our soils. How many of us have other conditions due to a lack of something so simple.
Suicide leaves a huge burden of guild amongst the people closest to the victim. If for no other reason than to alleviate this guilt, this study would be worthwhile. Of course the real benefit would be in preventing more deaths.
Clearly there must be a lot of different causes for a person to take their own life but if, as the above paragraph suggests, outside pressure and genetic make up can be eliminated as causes of our out of the ordinary rate, it must be something else. I suspect it may be found in our soil. I know that this sounds pretty far fetched at first glance but bear with me. Certain minerals as diverse as zinc, cobalt, magnesium, selenium and so forth are the vital ingredient in a range of hormones, enzymes and co-enzymes in the body. Ingest less than the optimum amount of any of these minerals and you will be functioning at less than your potential. You will feel somewhat unwell, somewhat unhealthy, somewhat out of balance. Have a total lack of one of these vital nutrients and you will simply die. Take someone with some other tendency toward self distruction (like a teenager in the throws of getting used to a whole range of new hormones or someone who has just broken up with a loved one) and the lack of a vital mineral with its associated feeling of unease, of unwellness, could send them over the edge.
This is only anecdotal evidence but I have lived for more than a decade in each of three other countries. I didn't know, or know of a single person in any of these countries that committed suicide. I haven't yet been a decade in New Zealand and I know of 11 at last count. That is I know someone personally who knew a suicide victim.
It would be very difficult to get a handle on this problem; to prove the hypothesis one way or another. It would be especially difficult since any investigation would come into conflict with families who are at their most vulnerable and upset. I suspect what we need to do is to establish the levels of all these nutrients which are necessary in the body for full functioning. They may not even be the same for people of different genetic make up or in different environments which further complicates the picture. We need to take biopsies of every person who does commit suicide and also biopsies of others, both in New Zealand and in other countries, to establish a base line. Unfortunately, only a few of these nutrients can be assayed by taking hair samples. If hair was adequate for all assays, the study would be greatly simplified. Some minerals need to be assayed from other parts of the body.
It is known that various New Zealand soils are lacking in various of the essential minerals so there is a reasonable chance that Kiwi's in various locations lack some of these minerals. If all that is necessary to stop this horrible waste of life is a little mineral pill or the fertilization of our fields with a few trace minerals, it would be a crime not to find it out and take the necessary corrective action. If a mineral lack is responsible for a high suicide rate, it is also responsible for less than "total wellness" amongst lots of people who don't take their own life. Selenium, for instance, is known to protect against cancer and joint problems and most Kiwi sheep farmers make sure that their sheep get enough supplementary selenium. Without enough selenium the sheep do not do well at all and there is simply not enough natural selenium in our soils. How many of us have other conditions due to a lack of something so simple.
Suicide leaves a huge burden of guild amongst the people closest to the victim. If for no other reason than to alleviate this guilt, this study would be worthwhile. Of course the real benefit would be in preventing more deaths.
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