PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining major BHP and the Queensland Treasury have reportedly reached an out-of-court ‘in principle’ agreement over a A$288-million coal royalty dispute.
BHP’s legal representation, John Sheahnan QC, told the Queensland Supreme Court on Monday that an agreement, in principle, had been reached between the two parties, and that negotiations between the two would be completed during the course of the day.
BHP in November 2015 lodged an application with the Supreme Court after the Queensland Office of State Revenue (OSR) issued the miner with a reassessment of A$186-million in royalties and a further A$102-million in interest, relating to coal sales undertaken between July 2005 and December 2012.
The dispute related to the proper basis for calculating the value of coal for royalty purposes under Queensland law, with BHP saying that its royalties were calculated based on the product’s first sale, which was to BHP’s own marketing hub based in Singapore.
The OSR, however, contended that royalties should be calculated by reference to the price at which BHP’s marketing hub sold the coal to its customers.