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7 comments on The Bullroarer - Friday 20th June 2008
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7 comments on The Bullroarer - Friday 20th June 2008
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I think China wants increased equity in Australian resource firms to influence export prices and I suspect to replace some labour with their own nationals. None of this business of teenage apprentices earning $100k in the mines. They also have what I call pseudo-equity a mixture of soft loans and exclusive supply deals.
The only new alternative fuel I know of in northern Tas is biodiesel from poppyseed oil. However the once urgent Gunns pulp mill anticipated a log throughput of 5-8 million tonnes a year. Even if half of that is unsustainable, more so because of Tassie's apparent 60% rainfall decline, that could make a hell of a lot of cellulosic biofuel. For example Verenium, Range Fuels and Choren all reckon they the right approach. With $130 oil the profit should be there.
And to influence where it goes. I made the point in an earlier post that countries can "lock up" resources by miltary means or by simply buying them "in the ground". If China owns 60% of this "Australian" venture, who do you think the oil will go to when China and Australia both need oil?
In the same vein we could ask whether the Brits want coal seam methane to sell in Australia or to send back to Old Blighty. Note that Indian interests now own a few coal and iron ore shows as well as much of Burrup ammonia. Which gets us back to why half a million people had to die in Iraq. No doubt a few countries now think Aussies are economic imperialists thanks to BHP and others.
I'd liken the mining industry to musical chairs. Everybody knows it won't be possible to dig up billions of tonnes of rock when oil nosedives and the music stops. The aim is to have a nice patch of ground to sit on.