A Bill to formalise the increased alumina royalties paid by Worsley Alumina joint venture, clarify access to the mining lease and provide revised port charges for the company has been introduced in State Parliament.
Deputy Premier and State Development Minister Ian Taylor told Parliament the Bill would increase the royalty from 0.5 per cent to 1.65 per cent of the alumina export price and now equated to the rate paid by Alcoa.
"The Bill will also revise the royalty formula, which until now has been based on the mean quarterly world selling price of aluminium metal previously quoted in the British Metal Bulletin," Mr Taylor said.
"The formula will now be based on the export price of alumina as provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics."
The Deputy Premier said the mining lease rental would also be changed to a similar basis to the revised royalty formula.
"As with the royalty, the mining lease rental will be reviewed every seven years with the proviso that at no time can the revised rental fall below the base rate of $1.93 per square kilometre," he said.
"This will involve payment by Worsley to the State of an additional $60,000 in the year 1992-93."
Mr Taylor said the Bill would clarify access by third parties to the agreement mining lease.
"It facilitates access by third parties over the majority of the Agreement lease, but also protects Worsley's best bauxite area from pegging which could prejudice its operations," he said.
"Worsley will have the same rights as are available to third parties to develop discrete mining projects centred on minerals other than bauxite, enabling it to undertake projects such as the Boddington Gold operation."
Mr Taylor said the Bill would also ratify the new port charges following the restructuring of the pricing system by the Bunbury Port Authority.
The new system made the charges more consistent with services rendered and had been agreed to by all parties.
