Peabody Energy Corp., the largest U.S. coal producer, said it’s still in talks with Nathan Tinkler about the sale of its Wilkie Creek mine, following a report that the former Australian billionaire missed a payment for the asset.

Tinkler, who’s trying to buy the Queensland mine through his Singapore-based company Bentley Resources Ltd., missed a June 30 deadline for the payment, the Australian Financial Review reported, citing people it didn’t identify. Peabody agreed in May to sell the mine to Bentley for $70 million and the assumption of liabilities including rail and port obligations.

“We continue to work with Bentley Resources to achieve the milestones we have previously laid out,” Chris Curran, a spokesman for St. Louis-based Peabody, said today in an e-mail. He declined to comment on the missed payment.

Tinkler, an electrician-turned-entrepreneur, was ranked as Australia’s youngest billionaire at the age of 35 by BRW magazine in 2011 before a series of court cases and asset sales combined to reduce his wealth.