An in-principle agreement signed last year to defer royalty payments for the first four years of Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine has not yet been formalised, Queensland treasurer Jackie Trad has reportedly said.
According to Fairfax, Adani is yet to sign the final royalties deal which it negotiated with the Queensland Government as part of the controversial $16.5 billion project.
The Government has said it will apply the deal to all new projects in the Galilee Basin, the Surat Basin, and the north-west minerals province, near Mt Isa.
Under the terms discussed in the in-principle deal, Adani would not pay royalties for the first four years of Carmichael’s operation, but royalties would ramp up from the fifth year onwards. The deal also secures third party access to any rail infrastructure built by Adani to serve Carmichael, which is to be built more than 300 kilometres from export facilities at Abbot Point.
The agreement was announced by both Adani and the Government in May last year.
But Trad has reportedly said the deal remains unsigned.
“Our position was originally put to Adani in May last year and we are awaiting their agreement to those terms,” Trad was quoted as saying.
“Our position on royalty arrangements for any first mover in a new resource basin is clear – royalties are to be paid from the start of production and deferred during establishment must be paid in full and secured in the interests of Queensland taxpayers.”