Change is good

The great thing about periods of change is that they create opportunities for open minded and astute people. The proposed new arrangements for mining are one of those once in a generation opportunities.

The reasons that the big mining companies don’t like it are;

* It level's the playing field a little bit - the big resource companies are now not the only ones who can "do" big and important projects. Small miners and maybe even new companies will be able to move up in scale and risk - now that they have a silent partner in the Australian government.

* The rest of the resource rich world will likely adopt similar schemes and the big companies will no longer be able to play one jurisdiction off against another - they will hate losing that market power.

* The mining feedstock will now be valued appropriately - and hopefully we will see the end of extreme low value royalty payments. Like < 1% on petroleum and 1% <> 3% on key minerals.

Now all this is good for the nation, the little guy and the smart guy.

I suspect that we will see a raft of new entrepreneurs enter the mining industry and bring with them the financial and organisational savvy from other complex industries.

Overnight this industry has moved up a notch in terms of its sophistication. The existing clique of "gut feel" miners will need to lift their game or be run over by this steamroller.

Where do I sign-up?