The WA government's failed gold royalty hike has been revived, with Treasurer Ben Wyatt revealing he is speaking to the industry about trying to make it work without significantly affecting marginal mines.
Last month, the opposition and crossbenchers in the upper house blocked the Labor government's plan to lift gold royalty rates from 2.5 to 3.75 per cent to shave $392 million off net debt over four years.
The industry launched an expensive ad campaign against the plan, and a major reason for the Liberal Party blocking the hike was the risk of significant job losses and mine closures.
But Mr Wyatt said on Thursday he was willing to make adjustments to the plan.
He noted up to 90 per cent of miners did well and could afford a royalty increase that would help repair the state budget, but recognised up to 10 projects were less profitable.
"It's been made clear to me that there are a number of gold mines at the more marginal end that aren't making that sort of money," Mr Wyatt told 6PR radio.
"We may be able to come come up with a mechanism to protect them like we do with the junior iron ore players.
"At the very least, if we can take out that hostility or the concern around the more marginal gold operations, then I think hopefully we can capture some more confidence out of the upper house as well."
Opposition Leader Mike Nahan said there were some "really big problems" with the previous proposal, but the Liberal Party would look at the details of the new plan and would probably back it if the industry supported it.
"We do not like discrimination against one mine against the others, we do not believe it should get very complicated," Dr Nahan told reporters.
"There are some very profitable gold mines, there are some very marginal ones - that's the problem."
Dr Nahan also flagged concerns the Labor government could introduce the proposed hike once parliament rose for the year, which would put the policy in place for months before the upper house could vote it down in March.
He says if that happens, the party will be "even stronger" in its resolve to block it, but Mr Wyatt says he is reluctant to take that measure.
