Mining boom benefiting foreigners: Westpac
More questions have been raised about how the wealth from Australia's vast mineral deposits is being distributed.

The mining boom has been concentrated in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

In a recent speech, a top Reserve Bank official said the wealth generated was flowing to the wider economy through taxes, work for professional firms and resource company dividends going to shareholders and superannuation funds.

But in its latest quarterly update on Australia's state economies, Westpac says there has been a considerable leakage of the benefits overseas.

It points out that foreign shareholders own 80 per cent of Rio Tinto and 60 per cent of BHP Billiton.

Westpac says indirect benefits like employment are mostly confined to the mining regions themselves, while export industries right across the nation are harmed by the resulting rise in the Australian dollar.

From the ABC

Govt moves to fast-track Rum Jungle mine
The Federal Government is moving to fast-track a mining operation at the contaminated Rum Jungle site near Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory.

Compass Resources plans to mine a mixed ore body at the site for nickel and cobalt.

Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane says the project has been given major project facilitation status, meaning it will be eligible for speedy approvals and extra supports.

Mr Macfarlane expects production to begin next year and says operations could continue for a decade if the company is given approval to mine other deposits at the site.

But the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) holds grave concerns over the decision.

The ACF's Dave Sweeney says the decision could make it easier for the company to get permission to mine nearby uranium deposits.

He says the project has been inadequately assessed by both the federal and Territory governments.

"There has not been sufficient detail or sufficient documentation for approving or fast-tracking a project that would lead or may lead to a significant uranium development," he said.

"It's been done in a fraudulent really and staged way where it has not examined the projects consequences and impacts as a whole."

Compass Resources has declined to comment on whether it wants to mine uranium, but says it has followed government assessment processes.

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Gus: see cartoon two blogs up... The more we dig, the more we destroy, the more we consume, the more we en-debt as a group (see latest figures 31/07/06), while a few individuals line their pockets... Quite weird, that's the way it is presented to us as the best "solution" fast-tracked by our rapists in charge... but that's not the way it should be. Fascist Kapitalism is stealing the agenda away from what we forgot we should be doing... We are not carers of the Earth — we may never have been — and we deserve less and less to be part of its existence... We should care more, yet we destroy our planet with our crass desires at accelerating speed. Has Gaia a secret death wish? Or are we so dumb we can't see?