Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned of a protracted fight with mining firms over his proposed 40 percent tax on resources profits, but said the levy would not be withdrawn.
Rudd, whose Resource Super Profits Tax plan has galvanised the resources industry, said talks with miners over the transition to the new system were progressing well but would not be resolved overnight.
"We do not expect to land any agreement with the mining industry anytime soon," he told reporters in Canberra.
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"This is going to be a quite long and protracted negotiation over quite a long period of time. Dare I speak of weeks at least, if not beyond."
The centre-left Labor leader, who has been accused of attempting to nationalise the country's valuable mining industry, said the 40 percent tax on the profits of the mining industry would go ahead.
"I wish to emphasise the government remains fully committed to a resource super profits tax," he said.
"It is important reform, we remain fundamentally committed to it."
Global miners such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have attacked the tax, arguing it will reduce Australia's ability to attract investment and was already damaging the country's reputation.
But the government has argued the "super profits" tax is needed because mining companies riding the Asian commodities boom are not paying sufficient tax, with multinational firms effectively paying about 13 percent.
Rio Tinto disputed the figures Tuesday, releasing independent analysis showing it had paid more than 20 billion dollars (16.6 billion US) in corporate levies and royalties in the 10 years to 2009 -- an effective tax rate of more than 35 percent.
"Put simply, these figures demonstrate that Rio Tinto, one of Australia's biggest taxpayers, pays its fair share of taxes," chief financial officer Guy Elliott said in a statement.
"It should also be emphasised that the data shows Rio Tinto has effectively invested all of its Australian profits, and more, back into Australia in the past decade."
Rio said misleading information "propagated by other parties has not facilitated a proper dialogue about the importance of the minerals sector to all Australians" as it reiterated its desire to work with the government on tax reform.
The prime minister defended his decision to use taxpayer funds to pay for advertisements supporting the new tax as necessary in the face of a well-funded mining industry campaign.
"Frankly we are not just going to declare the field vacant, we are going to join the battle," he said.
It is not known whether the tax, which is set to be introduced from July 2012 and will kick in when returns on investment hit six percent, will be finalised ahead of a general election expected this year.
"We don't intend to be railroaded by any particular timetable," Rudd said.
