High-stakes bout as Citic tackles Clive Palmer in court

Clive Palmer’s latest legal fight with Chinese conglomerate Citic asking WA’s Supreme Court to ensure its $20bn Sino Iron mine in the Pilbara can continue.

Clive Palmer is heading back to court in his battle with his estranged Chinese partners. Picture: Damian Shaw

Clive Palmer’s latest legal fight with his estranged Chinese business partners will begin in Western Australia’s Supreme Court on Monday, with Chinese conglomerate Citic seeking the intervention of the courts to ensure its $20bn Sino Iron mine in the Pilbara can continue.

The Queensland billionaire collects about $1m a day in royalties from the Sino Iron mine, but has so far refused to give Citic his consent for site works that will ensure the mine can keep operating into the future.

Citic launched legal action against Mr Palmer and his private company Mineralogy in October 2018 after what Citic says were his repeated refusals to submit Citic’s plans for ministerial approval, but the matter is only now poised to begin to be heard in court.

The Chinese conglomerate needs the WA government to sign off on its mine continuation plan, which involves expanding the mine’s waste rock and tailings storage facilities as well as increasing the volume of stockpiles that can be stored at the project’s port.

The company has argued that the lack of progress on mine continuation proposals has driven up its operating costs and increased the risk that the mine may have to stop production altogether in the longer term.

While the rivers of cash flowing from the Sino Iron mine into Mr Palmer’s pockets would suggest their interests should be aligned, the latter has so far opted not to co-operate.

Citic argues that Mineralogy promised “reasonable assistance” to progress development of the project, but says Mr Palmer and Mineralogy have engaged in “statutory unconscionable conduct” towards the Chinese group by refusing to submit the proposals.

Mr Palmer and Mineralogy, meanwhile, have accused Citic of engaging in “an ongoing and persistent breach of an essential condition” by allegedly failing to provide adequate security into the site remediation fund.

The trial is expected to run for 10 weeks.

Mr Palmer’s iron ore tenements have proved a rich source of both income and legal actions for the former federal MP.

Citic famously paid Mr Palmer $US415m for the rights to develop the Sino Iron mine, and then pumped billions of dollars into a construction process that run substantially over budget and schedule.

Those production problems were exacerbated by the outbreak of legal hostilities between the two, the most significant of which was a fight over how much in ­royalties was owed to Mr Palmer.

That matter was resolved in Mr Palmer’s favour in early 2020, paving the way for him to receive hundreds of millions of dollars a year in royalties from the mine.

Last week, Mr Palmer testified at his defamation trial in Sydney, where and WA Premier Mark McGowan are suing each other over the barbs they traded after the McGowan government passed legislation to kill off a $30bn legal claim against the state over its failure to approve another of Mr Palmer’s Pilbara iron ore projects.