SYDNEY – Australian mining tycoon Clive Palmer has been dealt a blow in a long-running legal battle with Chinese conglomerate Citic after a court rejected a A$48 million (US$35 million) payment, threatening the collapse of a key nickel refinery.
Palmer’s mining firm Mineralogy is locked in a lengthy legal dispute over the royalties it says are owed by Hong Kong-based Citic Pacific relating to the Sino Iron project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Citic is mining for magnetite iron ore on Palmer’s sprawling tenements in resource-rich Pilbara under a 25-year lease.
The two companies have traded barbs over the feud, with the flamboyant tycoon blasting Chinese politicians as ‘mongrels’ last year, while a Chinese state-run newspaper labelled his comments as ‘rampant rascality.’
Mineralogy argued in court that if the multi-million-dollar advance on royalties was not granted, Queensland Nickel – a separate business also owned by Palmer – would ‘suffer irreparable harm’ and risk hundreds of jobs, highlighting the perilous state of some firms as metals prices flounder.
Nickel prices have been hit hard by the global commodities rout, tumbling more than 40% this year to fall to their lowest levels in more than a decade.
– Nampa-AFP
