Formerly bankrupt mining entrepreneur Nathan Tinkler is keen to get back in the game

He went from billionaire to bust but this mining entrepreneur is attempting a comeback in the Queensland resources sector, where he first made his fortune.

He’s the knockabout mining entrepreneur who went from billionaire to bust in the past 15 years.

But, in an astonishing twist, Nathan Tinkler’s fortunes appear to be turning around one more time.

Now on the upswing, he’s poised to make a comeback — and Queensland is playing a key role in his ambitious plans once again.

Mr Tinkler has pinned his hopes on the Lady Annie copper mine, located about 120km northwest of Mount Isa.

This week the company behind the mine, Austral Resources, floated on the ASX after raising $30 million from investors buoyed by the strong recovery in copper prices.

Nathan Tinkler

But Mr Tinkler has flagged legal action against the firm and its executive director, Dan Jauncey, over allegations that he was unfairly ousted from the business last year.

The two men bought the mothballed mine for just $1 in mid-2019 from a Hong Kong-based entity but also took on nearly $23 million in debt from the operation.

When copper prices plummeted last year at the height of the pandemic, the mine faced substantial financial problems and even possible closure again.

That prompted Mr Tinkler to sell his half-stake in the enterprise, which was once worth about $89 million. It’s currently valued about $40 million based on the Austral share price that lost ground after trading started.

He now claims to have suffered “shareholder oppression’’ but Austral has refuted those allegations, denied wrongdoing and vowed to fight any lawsuit.

Mr Jauncey maintains that his former business partner walked away from the mining gambit as part of a commercial agreement signed off by both parties.

The latest drama engulfing Mr Tinkler comes as the 45-year-old former electrician tries to recapture his glory days starting in 2006, when he paid $1 million to snare the Middlemount coalmine in central Queensland.

Nathan Tinkler’s former mansion in Brisbane’s Pullenvale

Two years later, after selling the mine, he was worth nearly $450 million and, at age 32, became Australia’s richest person under 40.

By 2012, based on his stakes in Aston Resources and Whitehaven Coal, he had a net worth of more than $1.1 billion and was crowned the nation’s youngest billionaire.

Heady life in the financial stratosphere saw Mr Tinkler indulge in showy displays of his immense wealth.

Along with the private jets, he owned the Patinack horse racing farm in the Gold Coast hinterland, and briefly controlled both the Newcastle Jets and Newcastle Knights.

But his prospects started to dim in 2013 as unpaid bills piled up. The ATO chased tax debts in court and a lender took control of his shareholding in Whitehaven Coal.

By early 2016 he was declared personally bankrupt with debts of more than $500 million.

Receivers seized his Brisbane acreage home at Pullenvale that year and later sold it for just $3 million, about $2 million less than Mr Tinkler’s then wife acquired it for in 2007.

The property just changed hands again last month for more than $6.5 million.

The bankruptcy was annulled in April 2018 and a ban on his managing corporations was lifted earlier this year.

Now spending much of his time in Singapore, Mr Tinkler owns a mansion in Coffs Harbour and still has ongoing litigation against Whitehaven Coal.