Fact Check unit's revised report did not acknowledge it had got anything wrong

THE ABC'S Fact Check unit has formally corrected two of its most obvious errors in a flawed report on Clive Palmer's wealth.

THE ABC'S Fact Check unit has formally corrected two of its most obvious errors in a flawed report on Clive Palmer's wealth and companies - but the unit's revised report did not acknowledge it had got anything wrong.

The changes, made quietly online after 6pm yesterday, came after the international company behind the largest Chinese investment in Australia, Citic Pacific, said it wanted the unit to correct a mistake about the hundreds of millions of dollars it has paid to Mr Palmer for iron ore.

The unit, which was established with $10 million in new funds and an "aim to be 100 per cent accurate", was first alerted to its obvious errors on Monday evening by The Australian.

GRAPHIC: ABC's fact checking on Palmer

Other errors made by the unit in what was described as its forensic report on Mr Palmer remained unacknowledged and uncorrected yesterday, including the number of his companies and his overall wealth. However, the updated report did correct the claim that Mr Palmer's Coolum Resort in Queensland was owned by his Townsville nickel refinery. The Australian reported this month he had transferred the resort to another of his private companies.

The Chinese government-controlled Citic Pacific, which has spent more than $7 billion on its iron ore export project in Western Australia, said yesterday it wanted the ABC to immediately take formal steps "to have this error corrected". The Fact Check unit wrongly claimed that Mr Palmer's company, Mineralogy, had been paid a total of $US272m by Citic for the right to mine some of Mr Palmer's iron ore tenements. The payment has been widely reported, including on the ABC, as being $US415m.

The unit's updated report last night stated: "Citic has confirmed to Fact Check that its payments for the Pilbara iron ore project went to Mineralogy and to Mr Palmer personally, for a total of $US415m."

The Fact Check unit's editor, Russell Skelton, declined to answer questions yesterday but said that when the unit "has something to say we'll be in touch".

The Fact Check unit's lengthy report, titled Doing the sums: how much is Clive Palmer worth?, concluded that Mr Palmer was a billionaire with a wealth of $1.13bn.

About $865m of this was attributed to the value of a nickel refinery which BHP valued at zero, while almost $200m was attributed to a royalty "payment" by Citic, which Citic claims it does not owe to Mr Palmer and will not pay.