By MarketWatch

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has said BHP Billiton Ltd.  and Rio Tinto Ltd. have agreed to pay an extra A$300 million in mining royalties but are still in talks to gain more concessions, says a report in Tuesday's Australian Financial Review.

Barnett wants the miners to pay an industry-standard 5.62% royalty on the value of iron ore fines exports, rather than the concessional 3.75% that was set when the state's iron ore industry was in its infancy in the 1960s.

The paper says Barnett made the claim at a parliamentary hearing last week.

Barnett is confident of reaching a deal on ending the original concession in the next two weeks but other issues are still unresolved, the report says.

"The dispute is what trade-off they will get as goodwill for that agreement," he is reported as saying.

Sourced from www.marketwatch.com