BHP Says Miners Reach Newcastle Port Agreement With Government

BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) said Friday coal miners have reached an agreement with the New South Wales state government over the future of long-term access to export capacity at the Port of Newcastle.

The agreement will see new coal producers granted some access to capacity at any future expansion of the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group's export facilities.

"With these agreements in place the coal industry will have long-term certainty over future access to vital port capacity which will support our future expansions and growth of the region," BHP President of Energy Coal Jimmy Wilson said in a statement.

A spokesman for NCIG confirmed all the capacity framework documents for the access regime have now been signed by all parties and said the agreements are now subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

NCIG, made up of a group of current coal exporters including BHP, is close to completing construction of the first stage of its coal export facilities which will have annual capacity of 30 million metric tons.

Under the agreement with the government, new coal producers will be granted up to 12 million metric tons of export capacity in any further expansions of NCIG's operations.

-By Alex Wilson, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-3-9292-2094; alex.wilson@dowjones.com

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