澳矿业大亨寻求终止中澳铁矿采矿权

A company owned by Clive Palmer, the mining tycoon turned lawmaker, has moved to terminate the mining rights of China’s Citic at its multibillion dollar Sino Iron project in Australia.

克莱夫•帕尔默(Clive Palmer)旗下一家公司已采取措施，将终止中国中信(Citic)在澳大利亚数十亿美元的中澳铁矿项目(Sino Iron Project)的采矿权。帕尔默是澳洲的矿业大亨，也是澳洲议员。

Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy on Friday served a legal notice against Citic – until recently known as Citic Pacific – marking the latest development in an increasingly bitter dispute between the partners in the troubled iron ore project.

帕尔默旗下公司Mineralogy周五向中信集团发出法律通知书，标志着这一陷入困境的铁矿石项目的合作方之间的争议日益激烈。中信集团最近将资本全部注入子公司中信泰富（Citic Pacific）。

“This is a A$10bn project involving many hundreds of millions of dollars, they’ve failed to pay their royalties to us and they’ve shipped more than $200m worth of product to China and not paid for it,” said Mr Palmer.

帕尔默表示：“这是一个价值100亿澳元的项目，他们未支付专利费，并且在把价值超过2亿美元的产品运往中国，却没有为此付费。”

Citic, one of China’s largest state-owned conglomerates, agreed a deal in 2006 with Mineralogy, which owns the rights to the ore deposits, to develop a US$2bn mine.

中信是中国最大的国有综合企业之一，2006年，该公司与拥有该项目铁矿石采矿权的Mineralogy达成协议，合作开发一个价值20亿美元的铁矿石矿。

But the project has been hit by high labour costs and complexities involved in processing the magnetite ore, causing its costs to blow out to US$8bn.

受较高的劳动力成本及铁矿石加工流程的复杂性影响，该项目成本扩大至80亿美元。

In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Citic said it would seek an injunction in the supreme court of Western Australia on Friday to restrain Mineralogy from relying on the notice to terminate its mining rights.

在向香港证交所提交的一份声明中，中信表示，将于周五向西澳高等法院申请禁止令，制止 Mineralogy用自己发出的通知来中止中信方面的采矿权。

“Mineralogy has been restrained by the court or has undertaken to the court not to rely on several default and termination notices on three separate occasions over the past two years,” said Citic.

中信表示：“过去两年中，因Mineralogy发出违约及终止采矿权通知书一事，已经三度与法院交涉。”

The company said it had paid US$415m to Mineralogy to acquire its rights at the Sino Iron project and all the royalties owed to the company.

中信表示，已向Mineralogy支付了4.15亿美元以取得在中澳铁矿项目的开采权，并支付了所有应付的专利费。

The Chinese company recently launched a legal action against Mr Palmer, who was elected to parliament last year and holds the balance of power in the Senate through his Palmer United party.

中信最近针对帕尔默提起法律诉讼，帕尔默去年被选为澳大利亚议会议员，通过他所在的“帕尔默团结党”(Palmer United Party)影响澳大利亚参议院的权力。

Citic has accused the mining magnate of misusing $12m through his company Mineralogy to finance his election campaign.

中信指控这位矿业大亨通过Mineralogy非法利用1200万美元为他的竞选活动融资。

Mr Palmer denies the allegations. He told ABC radio on Friday that Citic’s claims were “just a made-up story like Alice in Wonderland that the press can run”. He then abruptly hung up the phone on the interviewer.

帕尔默否认这些指控。他周五告诉美国广播公司(ABC)无线电台，中信的指控是“无中生有，就像《爱丽丝梦游仙境》，媒体可以借题发挥”。他随即挂断了采访者电话。

Last month Mr Palmer prompted a diplomatic incident between Australia and China when he launched a tirade against the Chinese on national television, labelling them “bastards” and “mongrels” who shoot their own citizens.

上月，帕尔默曾在中澳之间掀起了一场外交风波，当时他在澳大利亚国家电视台发布了一篇针对中国人的长篇演说，称中国人是射杀自己人的“混蛋”。