Public mining company | Queensland Greens

Keep our critical mineral wealth in Queenslanders’ hands

Queensland could be on the verge of the next mining boom. Our State has enormous mineral wealth, including an estimated $500 billion in critical minerals which could play a huge role in making batteries, renewable energy and zero carbon technology.

Labor and the LNP wasted the coal and gas boom, allowing big mining companies to export $634 billion worth of resources from Queensland, while only paying 9% of that in royalties. Even worse, ten of the biggest mining companies in Queensland pay $0 in corporate tax.

Queensland’s minerals belong to all of us, not to tax-dodging multinational mining companies. The Queensland Greens will take back control of our future, and make sure the clean energy economy works for everyone, not just big corporations.

Private multinational mining companies are 86% foreign-owned, but right now Labor and the LNP are planning to let them keep the profits from the coming critical minerals boom, even as the State government spends $6 billion on taxpayer funded subsidies and infrastructure.

In Norway, which has a publicly owned mining company, the public receives 55% of all revenue from the oil and gas sector via taxes, royalties and dividends. In Australia it’s just 3%.

The Greens will:

Create a publicly owned mining company, Queensland Minerals, to take a direct ownership share of Queensland’s critical mineral wealth and ensure the profits are shared fairly.
Develop critical minerals mining and deliver $14 billion in public revenue, from 2030 onwards from projects in the North West Minerals Province.
Create 1,000 good mining jobs, with priority given to former coal and gas workers and a target of 15% First Nations staff across Queensland Minerals’ management and mining sites.

How Queensland Minerals will work

Queensland Minerals will be a government owned corporation paying 100% of its profits to the people of Queensland. It will own and operate key critical minerals mining projects in the North West Minerals Province (NWMP), with an initial investment of $4 billion from the Queensland Treasury, funded by the Greens’ plan to raise royalties on coal and gas.

The Greens would amend Queensland law to ensure that Queensland Minerals receives first priority for any new exploration and mining licences for critical minerals in the NWMP, secured via changes to State legislation. The public mining company will also acquire existing exploration and mineral development licences from private mining companies on commercial terms, paying a fair price based on the value of those leases.

This means private mining companies will be permitted to continue operating in the NWMP, but Queensland Minerals would gradually transition the most strategic minerals and sites into public hands via new licence applications and purchasing existing licences.

A fair share of the next mining boom

Over the last decade, only 3% of Australia’s oil and gas revenue flowed to the public as taxes or royalties, while Norway captured 55% in taxes, royalties and profits thanks to its publicly owned oil company.¹

In Queensland, highly profitable gas corporations Santos and Shell have paid just 4% in royalties on their $120 billion in LNG exports since 2012.

With a $4 billion initial investment, Queensland Minerals is expected to return $14 billion to the people of Queensland in royalties and dividends over twenty years from 2030 to 2050. This assessment is based on industry-wide mining productivity and profitability figures from the RBA and ABS.² Returns could be higher with a larger investment or depending on future markets for critical minerals.

Ultimately, Queensland Minerals would aim to return more than half of our State’s expected $500 billion in critical mineral wealth to the people of Queensland.

Labor & LNP’s subsidies for private mining corporations

The Queensland government is already spending more than $6 billion in subsidies for the private mining industry, which is 86% foreign owned.³ That includes:

Building a 800km, $6 billion taxpayer-funded electricity transmission line called CopperString 2032 to power mining sites.
Direct cash handouts like the $55 million subsidy in the form of $0 rent on minerals leases.
$17.5 million in direct cash payments for mining companies under the Collaborative Exploration Initiative.

These subsidies are on top of the Federal government’s $7 billion cash handout for big mining companies, the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive.

The people of Queensland are already paying for new mining infrastructure for critical minerals, so we should have a share in the profits as well.

Setting Queensland up for the future

The new publicly owned Queensland Minerals will set Queensland up for the next 30 years of exports and clean energy development, gradually replacing a portion of the revenue and jobs provided by fossil fuels.

There is an estimated $500 billion of critical minerals in the North West Minerals Province critical to decarbonising the global economy, including:⁴

$215 billion worth of zinc, used for galvanising wind turbines, solar panels, and other infrastructure to protect against rust. Zinc batteries are also being developed as a non-flammable, low-cost alternative to lithium.
$119 billion of copper, the most cost-effective corrosion resistant conductor of electricity.
$15 billion worth of cobalt for batteries.
$28 billion of gold, a corrosion resistant conductor of electricity important for manufacturing efficient, hi-tech electronics and energy infrastructure.
$104 billion worth of lead, used for making highly recyclable batteries as well as insulating sheaths for power cables.
$69 billion of silver which is used to make solar panels.
Plus graphite, vanadium, rhenium, molybdenum, and rare earth elements.

A publicly owned mining company would be able to ride the highs and lows of resource price cycles, avoid the boom bust seen in the private sector, and provide certainty for workers, industry, and regional communities beyond the short term.

New jobs for mining workers

The best job for a coal mining worker is another mining job, so new Queensland Minerals mining projects will prioritise employing workers laid off from the coal and gas sector.

We will also create new job opportunities for local First Nations people, with a target of 15% First Nations staff and trainees across

Queensland Minerals’ management and mining sites.

Strong environmental, cultural heritage and industrial standards

Publicly owned mining projects would set the standard for environmental management, workplace health & safety, and long term rehabilitation practices.

Queensland Minerals would operate within a tighter set of environmental and cultural heritage protections, including a non-negotiable prohibition on leaving large “final voids”.

The company would have a requirement to secure free, prior and informed consent from First Nations Traditional Owners, including an obligation to negotiate adequate compensation.

Public mining companies overseas

Publicly owned mining companies are commonplace and enormously successful around the world. Globally, more than a third of resource extraction is carried out by state-owned enterprises.⁵

Public mining companies in Norway, Sweden and Chile each deliver billions in public revenue every year to spend on public health, education, services and infrastructure.

Norway: Equinor is Norway’s main oil and gas company, owned ⅔ by the Norwegian government. It makes an annual profit of $44 billion.⁶ Equinor’s earnings combined with a high royalty and corporate tax rates for private companies means that the people of Norway keep 55% of the value of their oil and gas, $38,000 per year per Norwegian. The same number for Australia is 3%, and in Queensland big gas companies have paid just 4% in royalties on their $120 billion in revenue over the last decade. That is less than $100 per Queenslander per year.⁷
Sweden: LKAB is Europe's largest supplier of Iron ore and is wholly owned by the Swedish government. It brings in $2.74 billion in profits every year, a profit margin of 44%.⁸
Chile: Codelco is the world’s largest copper miner and smelter and is owned by the Chilean government. In 2022, Codelco contributed $5.3 billion to the public purse in profits and royalties, or 33% of the company’s revenue.⁹ Private copper mining companies paid less, just 8.9% of their revenue.
India: NMDC is an iron ore and minerals mining company 70% owned by the government of India. It has a 53% profit margin and makes $1.6 billion in annual profits.¹⁰ NMDC even owns lithium and gold mining and exploration projects in Western Australia.¹¹ If it makes sense for international governments to own Australian mines, why not ours?

Sources:
1 Michael West, A tale of two fossil superpowers: What Australia can learn from Norway
2 Reserve Bank of Australia, Mining Investment Beyond the Boom, including a 14% return on capital (EBITDA).
3 Han Aulby, (2017), Undermining our democracy: Foreign corporate influence through the Australian mining lobby, Australian Institute.
4 ACIL Allen Consulting, 2020, Copperstring Economic Technical Report: assessment of electricity market and economic impacts, with Soren Consulting & Izmin Consulting, cited in CuString, Re-Powering the Townsville & North West Minerals Province Industrial Economy.
5 By revenue. National Resource Governance Institute, (2023), State-owned enterprises; The World Bank Raw Materials Group, (2011), Overview of State Ownership in the Global Minerals Industry.
6 Equinor, Five year average figures, (2019-2023).
7 Daniel Bleakley, (2022), Gas Profits Untouched, Australian Institute; Daniel Bleakley, (2023), A tale of two fossil superpowers: what Australia can learn from Norway, Michael West Media.
8 LKAB, Five year average figures, (2019-2023.
9 Mining.com (2022), Chilean think-tank says Codelco pays more taxes but extracts less copper than private companies.
10 NMDC, Five year average figures, (2019-2023).
11 The Hindu, February 2024, NMDC to ramp up gold mining in Australia, pre-feasibility studies soon for lithium reserves.