PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) on Wednesday welcomed a pledge by the Labor party that it would not pursue an increase in gold royalties should it be re-elected in the March election.

Instead, the gold royalty would be maintained at 2.5%.

“Today’s election commitment relieves community and industry concerns that a new Parliament could pass an increase in the gold royalty,” said Amec CEO Warren Pearce.

“With today’s commitment, all three major parties, Labor, Liberal and National, support no change in the gold royalty; this means that regardless of the election outcome the gold royalty will not change.”

“This provides gold companies the certainty they need to attract further investment and to push the button on the development of new mines.”

“The gold industry continues to make a remarkable economic contribution to Western Australia. It has led the recovery in exploration and investment in 2019 and 2020, with major gold exploration activity taking place across the Goldfields and the Pilbara.”

The number of gold projects increased from 47 in 2018/19 to 52 in 2019/20.

“In the last two years, on the back of a strong gold price, five new gold mines have opened,” said Pearce.

“Gold paid A$388-million in royalties in 2019/20 and is expected to give back even more in the next state Budget after record prices in 2020.”

The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety estimates that approximately A$679-million of gold projects are currently under development, and a further A$1.7-billion are proposed and in planning.

“It is likely Western Australia will see another five or six gold mines go into development in the next 18 months.

“Providing certainty on the gold royalty is good economic leadership that will help the gold industry grow and create more jobs and opportunities for Western Australians,” said Pearce.