The Supreme Court has rejected an eleventh-hour bid by Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy to add a massive counter-claim to its long-running battle with Chinese iron ore producer CITIC.
The Supreme Court has rejected an eleventh-hour bid by Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy to add a massive counter-claim to its long-running battle with Chinese iron ore producer CITIC.
In a claim lodged one month ago, Mineralogy argued that CITIC should have paid royalties on low-grade magnetite ore mined at the Sino Iron project in the Pilbara.
It claimed loss and damage of royalty payments in the amount of $56 million and US$556 million ($915 million), “together with a claim for loss and damage of the market value of certain ore material in the vicinity of $5 billion”.
CITIC countered that the ore in question was essentially waste and therefore not suitable for processing.
It asserted the proposed claims were “hopeless or unarguable”.
Justice Michael Lundberg concluded the claim was “contractually weak, albeit arguable, contrary to the submission advanced by Mineralogy”.
In rejecting the claims, he emphasised the application was “a late attempt to introduce these allegations in such close proximity to the listed trial”.
“The Court has concluded that the explanation for the late attempt to raise these issues is not consistent with the objective course of events, and Mineralogy has long known of the plaintiffs' practice about which it now complains,” he concluded.
Justice Lundberg noted that “a director of the first defendant (Mineralogy) has frankly now acknowledged the company was aware of the Utilisation Low Grade Material issue many years ago and made a decision not to pursue that matter at the time”.
He also noted that the dispute between the parties as to the provision of information (or lack thereof) has also been the subject of numerous communications, stretching back some years.
The trial between Mineralogy and CITIC is due to commence on Monday 28 April after several years of hearings and preparation.
CITIC argues that Mineralogy (which owns the Sino Iron tenements and is essentially its landlord) needs to grant access to additional land to enable the project to operate efficiently.
It has already cut its production from 21 million wet metric tonnes to 14 million wmt and asserted that some 3,000 jobs are at risk.
Mineralogy has claimed CITIC needs to make additional payments to secure access to more land.
Royalty payments by CITIC to Mineralogy have underpinned Mr Palmer’s multi-billion-dollar fortune, making him one of Australia’s wealthiest people.
His fortune has been used to support his latest political party, The Trumpet of Patriots.
