Commonwealth Numbered Acts

INCOME TAX ASSESSMENT ACT 1997 No. 38 of 1997 - SECT 330.60

(1) If you are a *genuine prospector, your *ordinary income (for the 1997-98
income year or a later income year) from the sale, transfer or assignment of
your rights to mine, in a particular area in Australia, for:

   (a)  a *mineral covered by the following table of minerals; or

   (b)  gold; or

   (c)  ores of a metal covered by the following table of metals; is exempt
        from income tax.

Minerals                            Metals
Asbestos                            Antimony
Bauxite                             Arsenic
Chromite                            Beryllium
Emery                               Bismuth
Fluorspar                           Cobalt
Graphite                            Columbium
Ilmenite                            Copper
Kyanite                             Lithium
Magnesite                           Mercury
Manganese oxides                    Molybdenum
Mica                                Nickel
Monazite                            Osmiridium
Pyrite                              Platinum
Quartz crystals                     Selenium
  (piezo-electric quality)          Strontium
Radio-active ores                   Tantalum
Rutile                              Tellurium
Sillimanite                         Tin
Vermiculite                         Tungsten
Zircon                              Vanadium


(2) The exemption only applies to so much of the *ordinary income as exceeds
the sum of:

   (a)  any amounts you can deduct for that income year, or have deducted or
        can deduct for an earlier income year, under section 330- 15 in
        respect of expenditure on *exploration or prospecting for

*minerals (other than *petroleum) in that area; and

   (b)  any amounts you have deducted or can deduct for an earlier income year
        under section 122J of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 in respect of
        expenditure on exploration or prospecting (within the meaning of that
        section) in that area. Note 1: Subdivision 330-F (which is about
        excess deductions) of this Act disallows deductions that you would
        have otherwise been entitled to under this Division. Note 2:
        Subsection 122J(4B) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 disallows
        deductions that you would have otherwise have been entitled to under
        section 122J of that Act. Note 3: Amounts of exploration or
        prospecting expenditure in relation to that area that you could
        otherwise deduct for a later income year must be set off against the
        exempt income: see section 330-330.

(3) A genuine prospector is:

   (a)  an individual who has personally carried out all or a major part of
        the field work of prospecting for the *mineral, gold or ores in that
        area, or has contributed to the expenditure someone else has incurred
        in the work of prospecting and development in that area; or

   (b)  a company that has carried out all or a major part of such field work.

(4) The exemption does not apply if:

   (a)  any party to the transaction has the power (under the terms of the
        transaction or otherwise) to directly or indirectly control the entry
        into the transaction by, or the activities in connection with the
        mining rights of, the other party to the transaction; or

   (b)  any other person has the power (under the terms of the transaction or
        otherwise) to directly or indirectly control the entry into the
        transaction by, or the activities in connection with the mining rights
        of, the parties to the transaction.