Sector guide · Mining services & supply
Selling a mining services business in Queensland
Queensland runs two separate mining safety statutes, one for coal and one for mineral mines and quarries, enforced by two separate inspectorates inside Resources Safety and Health Queensland. A labour hire licence under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld) cannot be sold, lent or transferred, so the completion date of your sale and the grant date of the buyer’s licence have to line up.
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How do you sell a mining services business in Queensland?
A Queensland mining services business sells as a share sale or an asset sale, and structure drives the licence outcome. Coal work sits under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 and mineral mines under the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999, both regulated by Resources Safety and Health Queensland. A labour hire licence cannot be transferred, so a buyer must appear on the Queensland labour hire licence register before supplying workers.
- The most valuable asset in a mining services business is usually the one you cannot photograph: approved vendor status with the mines.
- Prequalifications, an inducted and ticketed crew, a strong safety record and contracted shutdown work are what earn a premium above the equipment.
- Approved vendor status with mining companies and head contractors takes months or years to earn, which is exactly why a buyer will pay for yours.
- Gear is replaceable. The right to be on site at all is not.
The short answer, in six lines
Everything below is expanded further down the page, with the register or the regulator named so you can check it yourself.
At a glance
Larger Queensland contractors buying scope, crews and site accreditation, and interstate contractors wanting a Bowen Basin or North West Minerals Province entry point. Equipment-backed buyers, management buyouts and family successors also buy.
There is no single mining services licence in Queensland. Coal work sits under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 (Qld) and mineral mines and quarries under the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 (Qld), both administered by Resources Safety and Health Queensland. If you supply workers to another business you also need a licence under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld), granted for a term of up to 1 year.
In a share sale the contracting entity is unchanged, so the labour hire licence, the prequalification records, the WorkCover Queensland policy and the contracts stay in place, subject to change of control clauses. In an asset sale nothing moves by itself. Contracts need novation, the buying entity needs its own labour hire licence, and prequalification has to be rebuilt in the buyer’s name.
The contract register, read for change of control, termination for convenience and assignment clauses. Then the labour hire licence and its entry on the public register, and the prequalification status in Avetta, ISNetworld or MyPass. Then the safety and health management plan with its site bridging documents, and the Coal Mining Industry long service leave levy returns.
Six to nine months from appraisal to settlement, and a mining services business usually runs to the long end of that or past it. Longer where the buyer must be granted a labour hire licence before completion, or where each principal must consent to a novation. Longer again where a new entity has to pass an independent safety management system audit before it is treated as compliant.
Normalised earnings, then the quality of the revenue behind them. A schedule of rates contract with a defined scope prices differently to panel membership, which confers eligibility to be invited to price work rather than volume. Plant condition and finance position, retained statutory position holders, and any unquantified Coal LSL or award exposure move the number.
Prequalification is the moat, and it is also the risk
Vendor status is granted to an entity by a mining company on the strength of its safety record, its systems and its history on site. It does not automatically follow a change of control, which is precisely why the transition has to be planned rather than discovered.
A broker who understands how this equipment is valued
Before broking, I held senior roles in industrial auction and remarketing, working with the equipment that serves mines and heavy industry, and with the businesses that run it. I know the difference between a book value and a market value because I have watched the market set them, and in specialised gear that difference is where sellers win or lose.
That matters when your business goes to sale, because your equipment will be priced honestly from day one, your vendor status, safety record and crew will be argued as the assets they are, and the deal will be structured with the transfer questions answered before buyers ever ask them. The approach goes directly to the buyers who want the gate access: larger contractors, adjacent service businesses widening their scope, and investors backing a proven crew. Each one is qualified before anything identifying leaves my desk.
Not in this sector?
I sell businesses in every industry. These nine are the ones I have run, built or worked in, which means I can talk to a buyer in their own language from the first meeting. That is an advantage where it applies, not a limit where it does not.
E-commerce & retailRan a national online window furnishings retailer, and co-founded and sold a toy business built to several million a year.
Transport & logisticsTwenty years around trucks, trailers and fleets, and what a financier looks at before your profit.
Earthmoving, plant & civilIndustrial auction and remarketing. Machine hours, condition and the difference between the two.
Construction & buildingThe QBCC licence question comes before the price question, every single time.
You are reading this oneMining services & supplyPrequalification status and safety record price straight into the multiple in this sector.
Window furnishings & interiorsRan one. Custom manufacture, measure and install, and where the revenue ceiling actually sits.
Toy, gift & hobby retailCo-founded one with my wife, built it across store and online, and sold it. I have sat on your side of this.
Turf farmsMy father in law built a turf farm and sold it to his competitors. A sector few brokers have been near.
OH&S consultancy & trainingCertificate IV in Training and Assessment, and safety training systems built from scratch. Including RTO risk.Nine published seller guides, and the one you are on is marked. Every industry outside the nine gets the same process, the same buyer research and the same discipline. View all seller guides.
Who wrote this, and where the mining background actually sits
Tony Pope spent eight years in regional business to business sales into mining at the world’s largest industrial auctioneer, promoted from territory manager to regional sales manager. He sold heavy equipment, trucks and machinery through global unreserved auctions against annual targets above $90 million. He then spent two years as national sales and operations manager for the Australian market leader in automotive and industrial asset remarketing. He ran national auction and fleet disposal across a portfolio above $150 million, nine sites and multiple asset classes, with nine direct reports and a team of more than 60. That work was the resources sector from the equipment side. He knows what a dozer, an excavator, a water cart or a shutdown fleet is worth when it has to be sold, who the buyers are, and how quickly the disposal market repriced through each downturn. When the plant schedule in your business needs a defensible number, that is the part of this he has done for a living.
The regulatory material on this page is traced to primary sources rather than written from memory. That covers the two safety Acts, section 82 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, Recognised Standard 11, the Coal Mine Workers’ Health Scheme, the direct employment rules and the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017. Every source is listed below so you can check each line of it. Where the research could not confirm something, this page says so rather than filling the gap, including the section number behind the health assessment obligation and whether prequalified status survives a change of control. Tony Pope holds Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence 4963575 and is a member of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers.
Questions people ask
3 of the 23 answered in full on the questions page for this topic.
Does my labour hire licence transfer to the buyer?
No. Section 39 of the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld) states that a licensee must not transfer, sell, dispose of, lend or hire out the licensee’s licence to another person. The maximum penalty is 200 penalty units or 1 year imprisonment.
Should I sell the shares in my mining services company or sell the assets?
In mining services the answer is a licensing question before it is a tax question. A share sale keeps the contracting entity alive. The labour hire licence, the WorkCover Queensland accident insurance policy and the prequalification records in Avetta or ISNetworld all stay where they are. So do the contracts and the coal mine worker health assessment cycle.
Is Standard 11 actually required by Queensland law?
Not in those words. Standard 11 is not a term used in Queensland legislation, and no Act or Regulation names it. What is legislated is the competency requirement, which RSHQ cites to section 82 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, operative from 1 January 2002.
More questions mining services owners ask, all 23 of them.
Go deeper
The long form, where it belongs
The full detail is on the pages below, each on its own page.
Check it yourself12 primary sources
Primary sources, none of them affiliated with me and none of them endorsing this site. Where anything here differs from an official source, the official source is right.
The terms a buyer and a mine will use10 definitions
Plain definitions of the words a buyer, a financier or a regulator will use. Where a term has a statutory anchor, it is named.
The Queensland Act governing safety and health at coal mines, with the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 (Qld) beneath it. Section 42 sets the obligations of the site senior executive, section 43 the obligations of contractors, and section 62 defines a safety and health management system. It is administered by Resources Safety and Health Queensland and enforced through the Coal Inspectorate.
The separate Queensland Act governing mineral mines and quarries, including metalliferous, hard rock, sand and gravel operations. It applies to mines, other than coal mines, and to operations. Section 39 sets the obligations of the site senior executive and section 40 the obligations of contractors. Enforcement runs through the Mineral Mines and Quarries Inspectorate.
The independent safety and health regulator for Queensland’s mining, quarrying, explosives, petroleum and gas industries, established as a statutory body by the Resources Safety and Health Queensland Act 2020. RSHQ administers the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999, the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999, the Explosives Act 1999 and the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004.
The person with the statutory obligation to ensure the risk to persons from mining operations is at an acceptable level, and to develop and implement a safety and health management system, assess competencies and provide supervision. The obligation sits at section 42 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 and section 39 of the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999.
Defined at section 62 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 as a system incorporating risk management elements and practices. Those practices must ensure safety and health of persons who may be affected by coal mining operations. A contractor does not run a standalone regime on site. Your own safety and health management plan has to sit under the mine’s SHMS as controlled by the site senior executive.
An instrument issued under sections 71 and 72 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999. A recognised standard is not a regulation. It is admissible in evidence in a proceeding if the proceeding relates to a contravention of a safety and health obligation. An obligation can be discharged by adopting a stated way in the standard, or another way achieving an equal or better level of risk. Coal recognised standards run RS1 to RS23.
An industry name, not a term used in Queensland legislation. The nationally recognised training product the industry calls Standard 11 surface is RIISS00034 Surface Coal Mine Safety Skill Set, listed on training.gov.au and delivered by Registered Training Organisations rather than by RSHQ. What is legislated is the prescribed competency set, which RSHQ cites to section 82 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, operative from 1 January 2002.
A statutory qualification issued by RSHQ and assessed by the Board of Examiners under the authority of both mining safety Acts. Coal certificates include First Class and Second Class Mine Manager Underground, Deputy Underground, Open Cut Examiner, Ventilation Officer Underground, Electrical Engineering Manager, Mechanical Engineering Manager and Surface Mine Manager, the last introduced in June 2025. Certificates are issued to individuals, so they leave with the person.
Defined at section 7 of the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld). A person provides labour hire services if, in the course of carrying on a business, the person supplies, to another person, a worker to do work. Section 10 makes it an offence to provide labour hire services without a licence. The maximum penalty is 1,034 penalty units or 3 years imprisonment for an individual, and 3,000 penalty units for a corporation.
Assessment of a supplier’s capability, safety systems, insurances, licences and financial standing before it is eligible to tender or be engaged. In the resources sector it is run through contractor management platforms rather than by a government register. The nearest Queensland Government analogue is the PQC System, described as Queensland’s whole-of-government register of prequalified building consultants and contractors.
Ask what it is worth
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