The opposition has announced today that they would vote against the new mining tax as resistance against the 40 percent super tax continued snowballing with some companies sounding alarm that they may be forced to either shut down existing projects or hold off explorations already lined up this year.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb met with mining bigwigs in Canberra and told ABC that the industry was generally overwhelmed by the new measures, adding that the mining sector scored the introduction of the tax without any consultation from their sector.

He said that the opposition is under the impression that government will eventually dump the new tax following some backlash since its announcement, stressing that they will block the tax's implementation should it reach the voting stage.

The government, however, expressed no surprise on the mounting criticisms as Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard told ABC that they were anticipating such reactions from the industry.

She said that they were expecting the super profits tax to face opposition and "that there would be a major debate nationally and we expected resources companies to push back very hard."

And she found an ally on former central bank governor Bernie Fraser, currently an independent director of two large superannuation industry funds, who described the super tax as long overdue and said that miners are "crying wolf" over the tax.

He told ABC that the new measures would serve the national interest and "getting 40 per cent of the super profits for the community from the development of their non-renewable resources is all for the good."

Also, Small Business Minister Craig Emerson cautioned that blocking the new tax would translate to some two million small enterprises being denied their much needed tax relief, as he expressed confidence that the opposition would not be working against the interest of the country's small businesses.