Royalty Rates

Some of the current royalty rates are listed below. Please refer to the Mineral Resources Regulations 2003 and Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Regulation 2004 for full details of all royalty rates.

Commodity	Rate	Comments	Policy & other references
Coal	A two tier coal royalty schedule applies. Coal companies pay 7% of value up to A$100 per tonne and 10 per cent of the value thereafter.	For example, a price of A$100 per tonne attracts a rate of 7% of coal value, A$200 per tonne attracts 8.5% and A$300 per tonne attracts 9%.	Policy No. 140 - Determination of coal royalty (PDF - 8KB). Refer to Schedule 4, Part 2, section 3 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Petroleum (including - oil, condensate, natural gas, LPG, coal seam methane)	10% of wellhead value		Policy No. 68 - Clarification of revenues and allowable deductions in establishing wellhead value under Section 148 of the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Regulation 2004 (PDF - 81KB). Petroleum Industry Royalty Issues paper (PDF - 211KB).
Bauxite	Domestic - the higher of 75% of the calculated rate per tonne for export bauxite or $1.50 per tonne. Export - the higher of 10% of the value of the bauxite or $2.00 per tonne	Domestic = sold, disposed of or used within Queensland.	Refer to Schedule 4, Part 2, section 2 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Industrial Minerals: Bentonite Calcite Clay shale Clay used for fired clay products Diatomite Dolomite Felspar Gypsum Kaolin Lime, earth Limestone Magnesite Marble Mica Perlite Rock mined in block or slab form for building or monumental purposes Salt Sand, gravel & rock Silica Wollastonite	Rate per tonne: 1.80 1.00 0.50 0.50 1.50 1.00 0.75 0.50 1.00 0.50 0.75 1.50 1.00 1.50 1.00 1.00 1.50 0.50 0.90 0.75		Refer to Schedule 4, Part 2, section 1 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Base & Precious Metals: Cobalt Copper Gold Lead Nickel Silver Zinc	Fixed rate 2.7% or Variable rate 1.5% - 4.5%, depending on average quarterly metal price. Companies elect between fixed or variable rate for a period of five years. (The fixed rate election option ceases on 31 December 2010.)	Processing discounts apply for base minerals processed within the State to a particular metal content as per section 39 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003. $100,000 royalty free threshold (applied to the value before the calculation of royalty per mining project).	Policy No 164 - Payable Metal and Revenue Issues in Relation to Royalty Applying to Certain Prescribed Minerals (PDF - 213KB). Refer to Schedule 4, Part 1, sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003. Further reference information is listed below the table.
Gemstones	2.5% of value	$100,000 royalty free threshold (applied to the value before the calculation of royalty per project).	Refer to Schedule 4, Part 1, section 4 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Mineral Sands (includes anatase, ilmenite, leucoxene, monazite, rutile & zircon)	5% of value		Refer to Schedule 4, Part 1, section 6 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Phosphate Rock	The higher of: 80 cents per tonne or the amount determined by the formula contained in Schedule 4, section 7(1)(a) of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.		Refer to Schedule 4, Part 1, section 7 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Iron Ore (includes magnetite, titanomagnetite & ironstone)	2.7% of value	A processing discount applies as per section 39 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003. $100,000 royalty free threshold (applied to the value before the calculation of royalty per mining project)	Refer to Schedule 4, Part 1, section 9 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Manganese, molybdenum, rare earths, tantalum and tungsten	2.7% of value	Processing discounts apply as per section 39 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003. $100,000 royalty free threshold (applied to the value before the calculation of royalty per mining project)	Refer to Schedule 4, Part 1, section 5(a) of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.
Other Mineral (a mineral for which a royalty rate is not already prescribed in a regulation)	2.7% of value	$100,000 royalty free threshold (applied to the value before the calculation of royalty per mining project)	Refer to Schedule 4, Part 1, section 10 of the Mineral Resources Regulation 2003.

Base and Precious Metals

Examples and calculation sheets for copper, lead and zinc concentrates are available for download in spreadsheet format:

Metal prices and variable rate determination for base and precious metals:

Last Updated 23 July 2009