The Queensland Resources Council’s advertisements panning the tax will hit the state’s airwaves from today.

The Minerals Council of Australia is running television and radio ads against the tax, using analysis from Citigroup.

The MCA has also launched a website, “keepminingstrong.com”, in a move reminiscent of the successful cutemissionsnotjobs.com site against the carbon pollution reduction scheme.

Like the media war over the CPRS, unions are again siding with the government.

CFMEU national president Tony Maher said the coal industry will continue to boom under the proposed mining tax.

“The new tax will make it easier for new mines to start and old mines to keep going, as royalties will be fully refunded to mining companies, and will not be a fixed cost of production,” he said earlier this month.

But union officials also told the Queensland Times that New Hope had expressed “grave concerns” over the new tax, with issues believed to be linked to current projects.

The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union recently started bargaining with the Queensland thermal coal producer over a new enterprise agreement.

Meanwhile, Treasurer Wayne Swan told the Australian the 40% write-off component of the tax, a sweetener for projects that are less profitable, will encourage new investment.

But mining companies are reportedly having problems raising finance for projects since the announcement of the RSPT.

Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Andrew Forrest revealed this was the case to ABC’s Inside Business program yesterday, with FMG recently shelving two iron ore expansion projects in Western Australia.