Clive Palmer reaps $447m in royalties from Chinese adversaries

Brad ThompsonReporter

Updated Mar 21, 2024 – 2.51pm, first published at 2.42pm

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Billionaire Clive Palmer says he has spent about $60 million on lawyers and in court costs in his battle with Chinese conglomerate CITIC, and won’t back down after reaping almost $447 million in mining royalties last financial year.

Mr Palmer said most Australian entities would fold or be forced into bankruptcy in the kind of legal battles he has waged with CITIC.

Speaking five days out from his 70th birthday, Australia’s fifth-richest person said he would continue to fight to ensure royalty payments from the Hong Kong-listed company’s $US12 billion ($18.2 billion) magnetite operations.

The latest legal battle between Mr Palmer’s private company Mineralogy and CITIC kicked off in the WA Supreme Court this week, amid CITIC warnings about slashing production at the Sino Iron operations on the Pilbara coast in Western Australia.

Mineralogy accounts, signed by Mr Palmer on Monday, reveal its royalty income fell from $520.6 million in 2021-22 to $446.7 million in 2022-23.

Brisbane-headquartered Mineralogy reported net profit after tax of $126 million, down from $276 million. Its parent entity, Singapore-headquartered Zeph Investments, reported net profit of $325 million, down from $547.5 million in 2021-22 when the results included $204.9 million from the divestment of Balmoral Iron.

Mineralogy paid dividends totalling $111.6 million.

The accounts did not mention a near $US200 billion damages claim against Australia in a case related to stalled iron ore projects, and emergency legislation passed by the WA government.

Zeph filed a notice of arbitration seeking damages plus interest and costs under international trade law last year, claiming the law rushed through WA parliament in 2020 breached the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement.

Mr Palmer said the arbitration was “going well” and that he was “confident we will get a successful outcome”. He refused to speculate on the size of any potential payout.

The Rich Lister, with a fortune estimated at $23.7 billion in 2023, said he would continue to pump money into his United Australia Party in the lead-up to the next federal election.

Australian Electoral Commission data published in February showed Mr Palmer retained his crown as Australia’s biggest political donor in 2022-23 by gifting $7 million to United Australia.

“The reality is that when you’ve got things like the union movement, which has large amounts of capital, and there are two major political parties that have virtually the same views, it is important to have divergence of ideas,” he said on Thursday

“It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got, it’s just ideas that people get a chance to vote on. The people should decide and the more ideas we have, the better.”

Mr Palmer, who last week re-floated his long talked-about plans to build the Titanic II, said he had plenty of money to pursue the project.

“At a time when we’ve got a woke revolution, and we’re throwing out yesterday, we should pay tribute to some of the courageous things we’ve done in our history and pay homage to people in Western culture who showed character,” he said.

Brad Thompson writes across business and politics from Western Australia for The Australian Financial Review. Brad is based in our Perth bureau. Connect with Brad on Twitter. Email Brad at brad.thompson@afr.com