A lower mining tax should enable Australia to fiercely compete with other mining countries and any planned taxes on the industry should not be compared with the petroleum industry, that according to Access Economic director Chris Richardson.

He said that the country must realise that the mining sector's high profit margins would not last forever since other countries would also capitalise on their own resources.

Mr Richardson told AAP that Australia could not duplicate the 40 percent tax being imposed on the petroleum industry since the same high rate is being observed too in the rest of the world, but "in mining, hard rock mining, tax rates in the rest of the world are much lower."

He added that at its current rate, revenues to be raised from the tax should be more than enough as compared to the present royalty rate though he admitted that such measures would nudge Australian option up on the global cost curve and "the impact on investment is very long lived."

He clarified though that the resources industry would still grow but in a lesser magnitude, "and when you do that with our most valuable sector, our sector that punches way above its weight, it does carry risks."

Mr Richardson also reiterated that prices were not just determined by demand but also by demand and supply as he pointed out that "miners are digging deeper around the world and they're doing that as fast as they can, and if they dig fast enough, the price will come down a long way."

He emphasised that the main issue with the tax is it would slow down investment in the country and could eventually dwarf the industry as he stressed that Australia had already missed the onset of the mining boom due to the fact that its export infrastructure was not up to scratch.

"And it if would be too bad should the country miss the mining boom altogether just because the tax infrastructure is not up to scratch too," said Mr Richardson.