澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-07-03（在线收听）

The new mining tax deal’s prompted the global miner Xstrata to reinstate about 600 million dollars in copper and mining exploration projects. Xstrata says it'll now go ahead with the extension of its Ernest Henry mine in north Queensland, which is suspended due to the original super profits tax. But not everyone's happy with the deal. Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer says the new tax rate of 30 percent will still threaten the viability of the resources industry.

And the big miners have slipped from earlier gains made on the back of the new tax announcement. Fortescue rose by 2.0 percent. But BHP Billiton finished in the red. Local shares finished slightly lower, the ASX 200 and the All Ords both lost around a third of a percent. In markets elsewhere, Asian stocks had a mixed session. The Hang Seng lost almost 1.5 percent. But the Nikkei made slight gains. And the Australian dollar has dropped against the greenback. It's buying 84 US cents.

Lawyers representing clients of the failed Storm Financial have launched a class action against the Commonwealth Bank. The former investors took out loans with the Commonwealth to invest in Storm in 2007. The class action alleges both the bank and Storm breached the Corporations Act by failing to register an investment scheme. Many investors lost their life savings when Storm collapsed.

That's ABC Business News.