An advertising campaign against the Federal Government’s resources tax will go ahead despite today’s meeting between concerned smaller miners and a senior minister.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) remains strongly opposed to the mineral resources rent tax.

The Minister for Energy and Resources, Martin Ferguson, held a meeting with some miners in Perth today, but it was not enough to allay concerns.

An attack on the tax will now be resurrected through national television advertisements which will screen from Wednesday.

A similar campaign which also involved BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata was abandoned after Julia Gillard took over as Prime Minister and vowed to return to the negotiating table.

The latest advertisement shows a shop assistant and mother of young children questioning whether Ms Gillard has thought the tax through.

But AMEC CEO Simon Bennison denies the campaign is politically motivated.

“It’s just an absolute nonsense,” he said.

“We’ve certainly seen the flow of capital out of Australia. We’ve certainly seen the failure of a lot of IPOs getting off the ground and getting access to finance.

“That’s not a political motivation – that is bad tax policy impacting right across the industries.”

But Mr Ferguson says the campaign is absolutely about politics and that is evident in AMEC’s decision to launch the political advertising before today’s meeting.

“It is also clear that some of the participants are very well connected with the Liberal Party,” he said.

The Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Retail Federation will run similar campaigns.