PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The share price of project house Monadelphous dropped by 6.5% on Monday as the company announced that it would launch a A$200-million counterclaim against the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (Wicet), in Gladstone, Queensland.

The dispute relates to two contracts covering the construction of a jetty, ship berth and shiploader at Wicet, for which Mondelphous Muhibbah Marine (MMM) joint venture (JV) was responsible.

Monadelphous maintains that work under the contracts was completed, and the JV had received successful adjudication from Queensland statutory agency Building and Construction Industry Payment Agency (BCIPA) for payments relating to the contract worth some A$90-million.

However, Wicet had filed a claim of A$130-million in the Supreme Court of Queensland against MMM, which Monadelphous rejected. The company said it would “vigorously” defend the proceedings.

“Despite our best efforts to resolve all outstanding issues with Wicet, and considering that we have previously received successful adjudication from BCIPA in respect of many of these issues, we believe Wicet’s actions in filing such a claim are unwarranted,” said Monadelphous MD Rob Velletri.

“This is an unusual and non-preferred situation for Monadelphous given our traditional partnership approach with clients, but we are confident of our position and we will stand our ground, supported by a strong balance sheet.”

Monadelphous said that it was expecting further claims to be lodged with BCIPA in the near term, as it expected Wicet to reject future submitted progress claims.

Monadelphous was trading at a low of A$9.99 a share on Monday, down from its previous closing price of A$10.69 a share.

Wicet shipped its first coal in May this year, finalising the commissioning of the 27-million-tonne-a-year export facility.