Queensland state cabinet late last week approved a plan to set a seven percent royalty rate for all coal mines, levelling rates which now vary from four per cent to 19 per cent.Under the proposal, on which companies and the public have one month to submit comments, mines paying a royalty of more than seven per cent would see their rates cut to seven per cent retroactively from April 1, 1999. Mines paying a four or five per cent rate would see their royalty rates hiked to seven per cent from April 1, 2000, said Ian Gray, spokesman for Queensland mines and energy minister Tony McGrady. The Queensland Mining Council estimated at least seven out of 15 companies mining coal in the state would have to pay higher royalties. The Gordonstone mine would see its royalty rate raised to seven per cent .