RIO

Here are the Top 100 Australian Companies top 10 stocks which gained the most percentage points of company value on the share market, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) this 29th week of 2010 (last week):

Here are the ASX 100 bottom 10 stocks which lost value on the share market, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) this 28th week of 2010:

Australian mining giant BHP Billiton (BHP) is planning to build a $US5 billion worth of iron ore hub in West Africa after facing uncertainty in its local expansion plans due to the resource super profit tax (RSPT) proposed by the Australian Government. BHP is planning to boost its operations in West Africa through Guinea and Liberia due to some political improvement in the region and increased buoyant demand for steel which saw record prices for iron ores.

Tom Albanese, the chief executive of Rio Tinto (RIO) has stated that the Australian Government will turn into a risky “silent partner” of the Australia based miners through its proposed resource super-profits tax (RSPT) which has created a huge debate throughout the mining industry and believed to have negative impact over the mining sector of the country. Rio Tinto is currently doing as much as it can to prevent the RSPT which it believes will enhance the sovereign risk of Australia.

The chief executive of Rio Tinto (RIO) Tom Albanese said that it is important for the UK based investors to raise their voice against the proposed controversial resource super profit tax (RSPT) on the mining sector of Australia which has created a major debate recently. The latest data shows that the tax is going to have negative impacts not only on FTSE but on the retail sector as well.

The proposed super-profit tax over the miners have seen the value of mining companies taking major hit on Tuesday as the sector lost another $7 billion worth of value.

Australia based miner BHP Billiton (BHP) has made an announcement today claiming that the company is going for short-term pricing of iron ore deals with quite a few Asian buyers which were priced at a yearly basis in the past. The recent development is being considered as a great victory for the miner as it was campaigning to come out of the yearly traditional benchmark system of pricing iron ore.

Chinalco and Rio Tinto (RIO) have become joint venture partners for the development of the Simandou iron ore field in west Africa worth US$12 billion. This comes after the failed merger between the two companies last year. Rio Tinto and Chinalco have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding and are now working on a binding agreement which may take up to three months.