The government was asking too much from the mining industry, according to leading resource players, as they scored a new federal regulation that require them to furnish information that would allow non-mining firms to capitalise too on the ongoing mining boom.

In a new rule he introduced on Wednesday, Industry Minister Greg Combet said that starting July 1 this year, mining projects worth more than $2 billion will be required to submit an Australian Industry Participation (AIP) plan outlining the services and products they will need over the course of the mining operations.

The scheme, Combet said, will give small firms great opportunities to cash in on Australia's resources boom, effectively spreading its benefits beyond the mining sector.

"Businesses are going to have to be competitive to be successful but they will have access to market information in a way that previously ... they haven't had access to," the minister was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

In enforcing the new rule, the government hopes to shore up other Australian industries, specifically the manufacturing sector, which have been lamenting that the two-speed effect of the mining boom took its heavy toll on many manufacturers.

Along with the AIP plan requirements, mining firms will be required too to forward reports that detail the advances of the program and its failures, which Combet said will be expected from the companies every six months.

"This is an endeavour by the Commonwealth to ensure that Australian businesses get a fair go," Combet stressed.

The minister added that the government is under the impression that the new regulations will not hinder the smooth operations of the mining companies concerned.

"We do not think it will place an extra regulatory burden of any consequence on the companies that are involved in the projects themselves," Combet was reported by The Australian as saying.

However, key mining players criticised the scheme as a waste of time, or worst - economically unsound, complex and costly.

According to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), the new government plan will only expose mining companies to unfounded claims that the group fear could possibly launch by losing contracting firms, serving as unnecessary distractions for mining projects.

The scheme, the group said, was not too simple as the government claimed, and its complicated provisions could entail in the long run extra costs on the part of mining players.

Also, the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) cautioned the government against imposing regulations that twist the arms of mining firms into employing local sources on resource projects.

"Such an approach may result in added costs for currently competitive Australian enterprises with the perverse effect of ultimately costing local jobs, not saving them," AMMA chief executive Steve Knott told The Australian.

"Any subsequent moves to compel employers to use local industry and products, rather than consider them, will be vigorously opposed," he stressed.