RE: apex take on bolivian politicare they kidding us? 90m US$ in taxes for 2008 (due Jan 2009) with a projected 912m US$ in revenues (based on current metal prices) seems quite fair to me - doesn't it? Apex problem is that they can't fully deduct their hedging losses against the taxable income because of the revenue based part of the mining tax. This is in the area of 6.5% of net revenues (about 58-60m$ in 2008) . Adding another 30m$ in corporate works out to an 80m$ pre-tax profit or 50m$ NPAT. The taxation system in Bolivia is brutal against companies with inefficient production and/or administration. High hedging losses or high production costs give the company a smaller relative profit share with the Bolivian Government - in the example Bolivia would get 90m$ and Apex/Sum just 50m$. Of course the real cashflow of the project is much higher due to cashless loss positions like depriciation and hedging losses. Seems to me that Apex wants to fight for better tax conditions and this could only be good for Apogee in a mid/long run.
Art