Billionaire Chris Wallin’s QCoal slumps to loss as state coal royalties bite

Queensland’s coal industry faces a ‘perfect storm’ as mining giants report massive profit slides while paying record dividends and demanding royalty relief.

Chris Wallin's QCoal has swung to a loss.

Coal baron Chris Wallin’s private company says the industry in Queensland is facing a perfect storm after it slumped to a loss under an “oppressive royalty regime”.

Mr Wallin’s QCoal has just reported a $49.8m loss a year after he celebrated the demise of the former Queensland Labor government based on its “disdain for mining”.

The reclusive billionaire had hoped for a fairer deal for mining under LNP rule but it has refused to budge on reducing sky-high coal royalties despite mine closures and hundreds of job losses.

Although QCoal slipped into loss-making territory in 2024-25, subsequently closed a mine and cut jobs, Mr Wallin still pocketed a fully franked dividend of $100m, down from $400m a year earlier.

Sam Chong, another Queensland coal baron and billionaire, is also counting the cost of the industry downturn.

The Chong-backed Jellinbah Group reported net profit of $680m for 2024-25, down by about $386m on the previous year. The Jellinbah Group blamed the slide in profit on lower coal prices.

Jellinbah Group issued dividends totalling almost $1.07bn in 2024-25, plus another $136m at the end of October.

The lion’s share of those dividends flowed through to Mr Chong after he increased his stake in Jellinbah Group through a $1.6bn deal with former BHP takeover target Anglo American.

QCoal said its latest financial results showed the impact of adverse weather, falling international coal prices, and high government taxes and royalties.

The company was hit by softer prices for the steelmaking and thermal coal produced from its mines in the Bowen Basin and weather-related disruptions at the Byerwen operations.

QCoal blamed high production costs, high taxes and royalties, and low coal prices when it closed one of two underground mines at the Cook Colliery near Blackwater in September and sacked about 80 workers.

Despite the difficult trading conditions, QCoal – which includes the Byerwen and Northern Hub coal mines – paid $175m in royalties to the Queensland government in 2024-25.

In the past two years, the company has paid $483m in royalties and more than $700m in total royalties, taxes and charges.

QCoal group executive James Black said there had been a significant downturn in operational conditions for coal mining in Queensland in the past 12 months, and he renewed the industry attack on royalties.

“The fact remains that QCoal, like others across the sector in Queensland, is managing adverse weather and market conditions under the weight of an oppressive royalty regime,” he said.

“Unlike taxes, royalties are stripped from companies regardless of whether they are making a profit.

“These are challenging times for coal mining in Queensland as we face a perfect storm of negative impacts, both at home and abroad.”

Operations at the Byerwen mine were disrupted by weather.

Mr Wallin, who founded QCoal in 1989, started shifting investment away from Queensland because of the royalties and BHP has put a freeze on any new investments in the state.

BHP blamed the “unsustainable impact of the Queensland government’s coal royalties on business returns” for the loss of 750 jobs at its operations.

The mining giant is putting the Saraji South mine into mothballs at the start of December.

Geraldine Slattery, BHP’s president in Australia, has accused Queensland’s political leaders of lacking the “courage and vision to reset Queensland’s attractiveness as an investment destination”.

Mr Wallin spent more than $1m in campaigning against the Labor government after it legislated to close a QCoal mining camp, and was ­allowed to keep the facility open after David Crisafulli led the LNP to victory in last year’s election.

The LNP was victorious in all but one of the seats targeted by QCoal through its tellthemwheretogo.com.au campaign.

Mr Chong, who has made his fortune in the resources industry and real estate, doubled down on his investments in Queensland a month after the LNP claimed victory.

In November last year, he agreed to pay $1.6bn for Anglo American’s stakes in two Queensland coal mines, Jellinbah and Lake Vermont.

Mr Chong, who has worked in the Queensland mining sector for several decades, owned the Jellinbah mine with subsidiaries of Japanese group Marubeni and Anglo.

Under the deal, via his private investment vehicle Zashvin, Mr Chong scooped up Anglo’s 33.3 per cent stake in Jellinbah Group, which owns a 70 per cent interest in the Jellinbah East and Lake Vermont steelmaking coal mines in Queensland.

The coal industry is now targeting regional voters in its campaign to force the Crisafulli government to relent on royalties.

Whitehaven Coal boss Paul Flynn recently emailed the company’s workforce, urging them to add their weight to a Resource Industry Network campaign against what he said was the highest royalty regime of its kind anywhere in the world.

“And, because it is levied on revenue, not profit, it means coal companies like ours are being deprived of the capital they rely upon to sustain existing operations and invest in new growth and new jobs,” he said.

Originally published as Billionaire Chris Wallin’s QCoal slumps to loss as state coal royalties bite