More questions mining services owners ask

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.

The regulator says the same thing in plain English. The Labour Hire Licensing Compliance Unit states that a licence holder must not transfer, sell, dispose of, lend or hire out their licence to another person or business. There is no application to assign a licence, because the concept does not exist under the Act.

Structure decides the outcome. In a share sale the licensed entity survives the transaction, so the licence survives with it. Changes to executive officers and to the nominated officer must be declared within 14 days of the change, and the regulator can reassess fitness and propriety. In an asset sale the buying entity must hold its own licence before it supplies a single worker.

The timing risk cuts both ways, which is what makes this the deal-breaking issue in Queensland mining services. Section 11 makes it an offence for a person to enter into an arrangement with an unlicensed provider, without reasonable excuse, at the same penalty level as section 10. A mine operator will not take that risk, so an unlicensed buyer at completion means revenue stops on day one. Check any licence against the public register at ols.oir.qld.gov.au before you rely on it.

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.

An asset sale breaks every one of those. The buying entity is a different legal person. It needs its own labour hire licence granted before it supplies workers, its own WorkCover Queensland policy, and its own registration and approved documents in each contractor management platform. It also needs a novation of every contract it wants to keep.

A share sale carries history across with the shares. That includes any unpaid Coal Mining Industry long service leave levy, any award underpayment exposure, any incident and enforcement history sitting inside the entity, and any payroll tax position. Queensland payroll tax grouping provisions can also group the target with the buyer’s existing entities after completion, which changes the effective rate and threshold on the other side of the deal.

Take advice from your accountant and your solicitor on your own facts. The point to hold on to is that in this sector the structure decision sets the completion date. A labour hire licence application and a set of prequalification approvals both take time that goodwill cannot compress.

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.

The training product behind the industry name is RIISS00034 Surface Coal Mine Safety Skill Set, listed on the national register at training.gov.au. It is delivered by Registered Training Organisations, not by RSHQ or any Queensland department, and what a worker receives is a statement of attainment against RII units.

RSHQ states that surface coal mine workers must hold RIIWHS201E, RIIERR205D, RIIGOV201E, RIIRIS201E, RIICOM201E and RIIERR302E, or equivalents. Underground coal mine workers must hold RIIWHS201E, RIIERR205D, RIIGOV201E, RIIRIS201E, RIICOM201E and RIIERR203E, or equivalents. RSHQ notes those competencies may be amended by the advisory committee from time to time.

Separately, Recognised Standard 11: Training in coal mines, Version 2.0, gazetted 21 July 2023, sets the training framework. It requires the Queensland Coal Mining Induction plus a site induction, and it requires that each coal mine worker is given refresher training under the mine training scheme at least once in every five years. It applies to contractors expressly, because coal mine worker includes a contractor or employee of a contractor carrying out work at a coal mine.

In an asset sale, yes, for every transferring coal mine worker. The Coal Mine Workers’ Health Scheme, established by the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 (Qld), requires an assessment before starting work and when changing employers. An asset sale moves employees to a new employing entity, which is a change of employer.

In a share sale the employing entity does not change, so the existing assessment cycle continues undisturbed. That single difference can be worth several weeks of site readiness on a crew of any size, because a worker without a current assessment for that employer is not going to work.

The buyer pays in an asset sale. Business Queensland and RSHQ both state that your employer must arrange and pay for your health assessments, including any additional tests or follow-up investigations, referrals and reasonable travel expenses. Price that cost into the transaction rather than letting a buyer discover it during diligence.

The assessment covers medical history, a clinical examination, a chest X-ray to detect coal mine dust lung diseases and spirometry, with further imaging or specialist referral where abnormalities are found. Periodic assessments are decided by the employer’s appointed medical adviser but must occur at least once every 5 years. A worker employed by more than one coal employer needs a separate assessment for each employer.

It matters a great deal, because Queensland does not have one mining safety Act. Coal mines are governed by the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 (Qld) and the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 (Qld). Mineral mines and quarries, including metalliferous, hard rock, sand and gravel, are governed by the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 (Qld) and its 2017 Regulation.

Enforcement is also split. Resources Safety and Health Queensland runs two separate inspectorates, the Coal Inspectorate and the Mineral Mines and Quarries Inspectorate. Recognised standards RS1 to RS23 sit on the coal side, while the mineral mines and quarries side has guidelines QGL01 to QGL04.

For a buyer, the practical question is whether your systems, competencies and inductions actually reach the sites the buyer already works on. A contractor with deep coal accreditation does not automatically arrive ready to work in quarries, and the reverse holds too. Two other Acts commonly bite on mining services work as well: the Explosives Act 1999 (Qld) and the Radiation Safety Act 1999 (Qld).

If you work across both regimes, say so early and evidence it site by site. Cross-regime capability is one of the few things in this sector that genuinely widens the buyer pool rather than just adding compliance cost.

It is a levy of 2.7 per cent of eligible wages for each eligible employee, applied to all hours worked including part-time and casual, with returns due monthly within 28 days of the end of the month. Eligible wages is defined in section 3B of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Collection Act 1992.

It derails sales because the coverage test surprises people. Coverage is decided by role and primary duties, not by the nature of the employer’s business, so Coal LSL states that eligible workers may be covered even if their overall organisation operates outside black coal mining. A maintenance, labour supply or drill and blast business that never thought of itself as a coal employer can be one.

The exposure is retrospective. An unregistered or under-reported position runs for the whole period of misclassification. The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 6 July 2026 and introduced a new additional levy penalty rate tied to the RBA cash rate. Core employer obligations were not changed.

The same 2026 Act created a voluntary Unpaid Levy Payment Arrangement for employers with unpaid historical levy obligations. That pathway gives you a way to quantify and regularise a historical position before you go to market, instead of having a buyer price an open-ended number. How the levy position is treated on a sale of business or change of employer was not addressed on the Coal LSL employer pages behind this page, so confirm the mechanics with Coal LSL and your solicitor.

A change of control clause is the reason a share sale is not automatically the clean option in this sector. Master service agreements and panel agreements commonly let the principal terminate, or require prior written consent, where there is a change in the ownership or control of the counterparty.

So a share sale that legally preserves every contract can still hand each principal a right to walk. The remedy is sequencing. You read every contract for change of control, termination for convenience and assignment before you go to market, and you plan the approach to each principal rather than discovering the clause in week six of due diligence.

An asset sale has the mirror problem. Contracts do not transfer automatically, so each one must be novated. Novation extinguishes the old contract and creates a new one between the principal and the buyer, which requires the principal’s agreement. A principal asked to novate can reprice, shorten the term, or decline.

Buyers know this, which is why contract quality drives price in mining services more than fleet size does. A schedule of rates contract with a defined scope, a stated term and a consent-not-to-be-unreasonably-withheld provision is a materially better asset than the same revenue under a termination for convenience clause with 30 days notice.

On a transfer of business the new employer has to recognise prior service for sick and carer’s leave, requests for flexible working arrangements and parental leave. That recognition is not optional and it is not negotiable between the buyer and the seller.

Annual leave depends on whether the employers are associated entities. Accumulated annual leave either carries across to the new employer, or, where the employers are not associated entities and the new employer does not recognise it, the old employer must pay it out. That is a cash item at settlement.

Redundancy is different again. Unrelated employers can decline to recognise prior service for redundancy, in which case the old employer needs to pay redundancy to the employee upon termination. The employee loses that entitlement if they reject an offer on similar terms with service recognised.

Whether an enterprise agreement transfers on a transfer of business was not confirmed against a primary source in the research behind this page. The relevant provisions sit in Part 2-8 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), from section 311 onward. If your crews are covered by an enterprise agreement, put that question to your employment lawyer early, because the answer changes the buyer’s labour cost model.

Yes, and it is a Queensland-specific constraint a national buyer may not know about. The Coal Mining Safety and Health and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022 commenced on 25 November 2022 and requires all coal mines to have a directly employed site senior executive, covering seven statutory positions in total.

Underground mines must additionally directly employ underground mine managers, ventilation officers, explosion risk zone controllers, and electrical and mechanical engineering managers. Surface mines must directly employ open cut examiners. That materially limits the labour hire model in Queensland coal.

There is an exception that keeps full service mine contracts workable. An entity that employs or otherwise engages at least 80 per cent of the total workforce at a coal mine may directly employ the statutory position holders. Further exceptions cover associated entities for the site senior executive, underground mine manager and ventilation officer roles, temporary absences or vacancies up to 12 weeks, and exploration-only site senior executives.

For a seller, the 80 per cent threshold is both an asset and a fragility. It is site-specific and contract-specific, so it can be lost when the mine re-tenders. Show a buyer, site by site, which exception you rely on and what happens to that position at the next tender. A buyer that has to work this out alone will price the downside.

No. Both are issued to individuals, not to businesses, so they walk out the door with the person who holds them. A high risk work licence in Queensland is administered by WorkSafe Queensland and is valid for five years unless cancelled.

The classes common on a mine site include LF forklift truck and DG dogging. Rigging runs RB basic, RI intermediate and RA advanced, and scaffolding runs SB, SI and SA on the same scale. Crane classes include CN non-slewing mobile crane over 3 tonnes, the C2, C6, C1 and C0 slewing mobile crane classes, and CV vehicle loading crane of 10 metre tonnes or more. WP covers a boom-type elevating work platform of 11 metres or more, and BS and BA cover standard and advanced boilers.

A shotfirer licence is issued by RSHQ under the Explosives Regulation 2017 (Qld), held by an individual, and valid for either 1 or 5 years. It permits use, possession, purchase, storage and transport of up to 250kg of blasting explosives, and a Queensland Explosives Security Clearance must be obtained first. Applications move to the RSHQ Portal from 1 July 2026.

One caution on scope. Whether the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) applies at Queensland mine sites could not be confirmed against the Act in the research behind this page. So whether a high risk work licence is legally mandatory on a mine, rather than contractually required, is unresolved here. What is confirmed is that the licence classes exist, are administered by WorkSafe Queensland, run for five years, and are routinely required by mine operators as a condition of site access.

A buyer wants to see that your plan sits correctly underneath each mine’s system rather than beside it. Section 43 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 sets the obligation of a contractor at a coal mine. The contractor must ensure that provisions of the Act and any applicable safety and health management system are complied with, to the extent that they relate to the contractor’s work.

The mineral mines and quarries equivalent is more explicit about the paperwork. Section 40 of the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 sets four contractor obligations. Comply with the Act. Comply with the mine’s safety and health management system. Provide a safety and health management plan to the site senior executive, and ensure induction and training before work begins.

So in due diligence the buyer asks for three things: your own safety and health management plan, the site-by-site bridging documents that connect it to each mine’s system, and the site senior executive approvals for each site. A plan without the bridging documents and the approvals is a document, not an accreditation.

RSHQ publishes guidance on reviewing the effectiveness of a safety and health management system in guidance note QGN09. If your plan has not been reviewed against it, doing that before you list is cheaper than doing it under a buyer’s timetable.

A WorkCover Queensland accident insurance policy is held by the employing entity. In a share sale the employing entity is unchanged, so the policy continues. In an asset sale the buying entity must take out its own policy before it employs a single worker.

That matters more here than in other sectors because a certificate of currency for workers compensation is a gating document in every contractor management platform. Peabody’s Avetta programme requires contractors to upload workers compensation, public and product liability, professional indemnity, motor vehicle, and plant and equipment insurances. Whitehaven’s system requires the same categories.

The sequence in an asset sale is therefore fixed. New entity, then policy, then certificate of currency, then platform upload, then approval, then site access. Each step has its own turnaround time and none of them can be started retrospectively.

List every certificate of currency you hold, with its expiry date, in your information pack. A buyer building its own equivalents needs to know exactly which limits and endorsements your principals accepted, because matching them is faster than negotiating new ones.

Yes, in a share sale. A number of changes must be declared within 14 days of the change, including changes to registered details and to key personnel, and insolvency matters. A change of shareholder that brings in new executive officers or changes the nominated officer is exactly that kind of change.

The regulator is the Labour Hire Licensing Compliance Unit, within the Office of Industrial Relations. The scheme is established by the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld), which commenced on 16 April 2018. All labour hire providers operating in Queensland need to be licensed, including interstate and overseas providers supplying workers in Queensland.

Renewal is annual, not automatic. A licence is granted for the term of up to 1 year stated in the licence, and an application for renewal must be made before the licence expires. Fees as at 1 July 2024 were unchanged for 2024-25 due to 0.00 per cent indexation. Tier 1, where wages are $1.5 million or less, was $1,120.42. Tier 2, between $1.5 million and $5 million, was $3,361.26. Tier 3, above $5 million, was $5,602.10.

Practical point for a sale: do not let a licence renewal fall due inside your due diligence window. An expired licence during diligence is a far larger problem than a renewal lodged three months early.

It is a softer market than 2022 and 2023, and the honest answer is that it depends on your commodity exposure and your contract term. The Queensland Resources Council reported a total economic contribution of $115.2 billion in 2024-25, supporting 549,519 direct and indirect jobs, of which more than 71,000 were direct jobs.

The direction of travel is down on price rather than on volume. Queensland goods exports for the year ended June 2026 were $99.6 billion, down $4.9 billion or 4.7 per cent. Coal, coke and briquettes were $41,868.9 million, down $2,704.5 million or 6.1 per cent. Metalliferous ores and metal scrap were $9,166.9 million, down $770.7 million or 7.8 per cent.

Royalties tell the same story. Queensland Treasury forecast total royalties of $7.228 billion in 2025-26, a decrease of $708 million or 8.9 per cent on 2024-25, with coal royalties of $5.385 billion. Treasury attributed the downgrade to a stronger outlook for the Australian dollar, weak near-term prices for coal and petroleum, and a moderate downgrade to coal volumes due to operational issues.

Against that, the sector still spent $35.8 billion with local businesses and communities in 2024-25 and supported 17,600 local businesses. Queensland Government Statistician’s Office figures show mining employment in Queensland rising from 73,200 in 2022-23 to 78,100 in 2023-24 and 82,900 in 2024-25. The Queensland Resources Council also reported that the coal sector’s contribution fell about $7 billion year on year and that more than 1,000 Queensland mining jobs were lost between July 2025 and November 2025. Sellers with contracted term and diversified sites are transacting into a market that is buying contracted term.

Then you are selling two things, an operating business and a set of statutory approvals, and the approvals run on their own timetable. Transferring an environmental authority is governed by the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Qld), and the proposed new holder must be a registered suitable operator. The transfer can only be refused on that ground.

Financial assurance adds a step. Where the environmental authority carries financial assurance conditions, the new holder must have financial assurance in place before the transfer takes effect, and only then is the previous holder discharged under section 314(5). Environmental authorities for resource activities cannot be transferred by that route.

Resource authority transfers, including a mining lease, follow the departmental Permit Transfer guideline and require approval. Transfer duty also applies to resource authorities in Queensland, which is a cost line that does not appear in a plain services business sale.

Start the suitable operator registration and the financial assurance work before you sign, not after. These approvals are the single most common reason a quarry sale runs past nine months.

Six to nine months from the appraisal to settlement, of which three to six is the market campaign and contract, and in this sector the approvals are what push a deal past that. The variance is driven by named things rather than by luck. A share sale to a buyer who already holds prequalification at your sites sits at the short end.

Three things push a deal to the long end. First, an asset sale where the buyer needs a labour hire licence granted before completion, because a licence cannot be transferred and an unlicensed buyer cannot supply workers. Second, novation, because every contract you want to carry across needs the principal’s agreement. Third, prequalification, because a new entity has to be registered, insured, documented and in some systems independently audited before it is treated as compliant.

Whitehaven Coal is the clearest published example of that third constraint. Its contractor management system requires an independent safety management system audit by a qualified work health and safety professional, and states that you will not be compliant unless your audit has been approved. That is not a form, it is an engagement with an external auditor.

You can compress the front half. Contract register, licence and insurance schedule, competency and health assessment matrix, Coal LSL registration evidence and the safety and health management plan with its site bridging documents, all assembled before listing, take weeks off diligence. You cannot compress the back half, because third parties control it.

Start with the contract register. Every principal, every contract, its term, its expiry, its pricing mechanism, and the exact wording of the change of control, assignment and termination for convenience clauses. In mining services this document does more to set the price than the financial statements do.

Then the regulatory pack. Your labour hire licence number and its entry on the register at ols.oir.qld.gov.au. Your WorkCover Queensland certificate of currency, and every other certificate of currency with its expiry date. Your safety and health management plan, the site bridging documents, and the site senior executive approvals for each site.

Then people. Build a matrix, one row per worker. Record the prescribed competencies held, the date of the last coal mine worker health assessment, and the date of the last five-yearly refresher under Recognised Standard 11. Record any high risk work licence classes with expiry dates, and any certificate of competency held. Certificates of competency are issued to individuals by the RSHQ Board of Examiners, so a buyer is reading this matrix to see which capabilities leave with which person.

Then the exposures you would rather not raise. Coal Mining Industry long service leave registration and levy return history, award classifications and any known underpayment position, and your prequalification status and expiry in each contractor management platform. Raising these yourself, quantified, costs less than a buyer finding them unquantified.

It depends on the structure. Broadly, vendor registrations and prequalifications sit with the entity, so a share sale commonly preserves them while an asset sale may trigger re onboarding with the client. Because onboarding with the majors can take many months, this question often shapes the whole deal, and it gets mapped with your advisers at the start of the process, not discovered in the middle of it.

Typically as a multiple of adjusted earnings, with the multiple moving on the contracted and scheduled share of revenue, concentration across client, site and commodity, vendor status, safety record, crew stability and the honest market value of the equipment. A confidential market appraisal establishes the likely selling price for your specific business.

Yes, and some buyers will want that exact relationship, but concentration is always priced as risk. Contracted terms with tenure, a renewal history, and any diversification you can build before market, even a second vendor registration in progress, strengthen both the price and the size of your buyer pool.

Not through a properly run process. The business is described to the market by its capability, its commodity exposure and its numbers, never by its name. Every enquiry is put under a confidentiality agreement and qualified before anything identifying goes out, and site level detail is held back until a buyer is committed. In an industry this connected, confidentiality protects the client relationships and the crew that make up the value being sold.

Yes, financed gear is completely standard and does not stop a sale. Every encumbrance needs to be identified early and dealt with at settlement so the buyer takes clear title. Know your payout figures across the register before going to market.

Now, whatever your timeline, and in this sector the vendor and relationship moves that most lift your price take the longest to build. If your exit is closer, you may be able to fast track, and businesses with registrations, shutdown calendars or scarce capability are saleable to strategic buyers today.