Is this the Economic Saviour of the SA Economy ?
All financial figures are in 1997 dollars obtained using the March quarter Consumer Price Index.
Promised in 1982 Achieved by 1997 Production in 1993 150,000 tpa 85,000 tpa (57%) Direct Jobs During Production 2268 to 2815 946 Annual Value of Production $1,200 million $350 million Payroll Tax $5.2 million $3.5 million Annual Royalties $50 million $9.5 million Royalties, 1988-2008 $2,010 million $60 million Balance of Trade Positive Negative,
Approx. $500 millionPublic Service Borrowing Omitted Approx. $100 million As can be seen from above, the original economic promise of Roxby Downs was highly over-estimated. With the current Expansion EIS, we are seeing precisely the same thing occur again.
For example, the following aspects of the "Economic Impact Assessment" of the EIS grossly exaggerates :
job creation during the construction phase; increase in GSP (Gross State Product) during the construction phase; job creation during the production phase; increases in GSP and GDP (Gross Domestic Product) during the production phase; the increase in royalty receipts by the State; increases in tax revenue for the State and Commonwealth; increases in annual revenue from the sale of copper, uranium oxide, gold and silver, and in Australia's balance of trade. The Expansion EIS discloses that the current two year construction program at Roxby will lead to deficit in the balance of payments that will take about ten years opf production at 150,000 tpa to recover.
No information has been given about the effect on the balance of payments of the mine so far but it is likely that the break even point has not yet been reached, especially since the original overseas investment in the form of BP evaporated in March 1993, less than five years after the mine started production.
The other disclosure is that, as a result of effects on investment and the exchange rate, the project has a negative effect on the agricultural sector. None of these negative side effects have received attention from the media, which has uncritically swallowed WMC-Government propaganda.
The Expansion EIS still claims that royalties received by the SA Government have exceeded infrastructure costs incurred by the SA Government. Incredibly this claim ignores the change in the value of the dollar over the last ten years. Using Consumer Price Index figures, $1 in 1997 buys only as much as $0.70 in 1987. Such simplistic accounting can hardly be considered an oversight.
Information from the
"Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Expansion of Mining at Roxby Downs" Briefing Paper,
Nuclear Information Centre, Adelaide.
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