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.
The company also said that ore from its Cigar Lake mine, in Canada's Saskatchewan, would not be milled until early 2015, instead by the end of the year.