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Whitehaven Coal has added itself to the long list of coal companies expressing grave concerns about the impact of increased royalties on their business (see full statement below).
Whitehaven has been developing the Winchester South open-cut coal mine project near Moranbah in Central Queensland since the beginning of 2019, which involves nearly $1 billion in capital investment and 500-plus jobs.
Winchester South is the publicly-listed Australian company's first development in Queensland and will primarily produce steelmaking metallurgical coal.
Whitehaven joins a raft of other companies speaking out against the Queensland Government's decision to lift coal royalty taxes to the highest rates in the world.
Queensland Resources Council (QRC) Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane said today Treasurer Cameron Dick's continued claims that consultation about the royalty increases took place with industry are incorrect.
"The Treasurer needs to look up the definition of consultation," Mr Macfarlane said.
"Simply telling the QRC or a coal company that rates are going up – just before they were announced in the budget and without providing any details about the scale of the increase – is not consultation.
"After months of trying to secure a meeting with the Treasurer to discuss royalties, when we finally got in to see him, we were told the increase was happening and that was it.
"There was no opportunity for negotiation or discussion about the impact on our industry."
Mr Macfarlane said the extra amount of royalty tax the State Government is telling Queenslanders the new regime will raise this financial year (from July 1) has already been generated in the first six weeks, costing the sector about $18 million a day and totalling close to $800 million so far.
"This is an astronomical amount of money to rip out of the resources sector in a short space of time. It's a terrible situation to have been placed in by our own state government," he said.
"It comes at a time our sector had been going from strength to strength because of strong commodity prices, which is what drives the Queensland economy and employment."
On Tuesday, Australia's biggest mining company BHP announced it had paused its investment plans in Queensland due to the sudden increase in State Government royalty taxes.
Mr Macfarlane said the Queensland Government has harmed Queensland's international reputation as a safe place to invest in resources projects.
"Coal companies, large and small, are saying to us they're going to have to put a hold on investments for now and see what happens with the State Government around royalties," he said.
"There was no need for the government to impose a 'super tax' on coal because Queenslanders were already benefiting from higher coal prices under the previous royalty regime.*
"Under the previous system, last year Queensland coal companies paid more than $7 billion in royalty taxes - which is four times as much in royalty taxes compared to the previous year," he said.
"As commodity prices go up, so do royalties – that's how the previous system worked.
"The State Government is effectively killing Queensland's golden goose – the resources sector – and placing at risk the economic and employment future of the state."
The statements below have been released by companies in response to the Qld Govt's decision to increase coal royalties:
Whitehaven Coal
whitehavencoal.com.au/statement-on-changes-to-queensland-coal-royalty-regime
Attribute to Whitehaven Coal
"Whitehaven Coal wishes to clarify it does not support changes the Queensland Government has made to increase coal mining royalties. Whitehaven is one of a number of companies and other stakeholders that have spoken out publicly against the royalty increase which the company believes undermines Queensland's reputation as an investment destination.
On 18 July 2022, in response to questions on a teleconference with equity analysts for Whitehaven's June 2022 Quarter Production Report, Managing Director and CEO, Paul Flynn said about the royalty increase:
