State-owned and private companies from the UK, Germany, India, Brazil, Singapore and Russia are among those to benefit from the seabed regulator’s decision.
The shipments, the first of their kind in six months, were allowed after Sebuku Iron Lateritic Ores (SILO) and Lumbung Mineral Sentosa agreed to pay the new 20% tax.
As BHP considers the sale of almost all of the businesses that Billiton brought to the 2001 merger deal, experts say the firm is likely to end up leaving London.