澳礦業大亨尋求終止中澳鐵礦採礦權

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.

克萊夫•帕爾默(Clive Palmer)旗下一家公司已採取措施，將終止中國中信(Citic)在澳大利亞數十億美元的中澳鐵礦項目(Sino Iron Project)的採礦權。帕爾默是澳洲的礦業大亨，也是澳洲議員。

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.

帕爾默旗下公司Mineralogy週五向中信集團發出法律通知書，標誌着這一陷入困境的鐵礦石項目的合作方之間的爭議日益激烈。中信集團最近將資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.

帕爾默表示：“這是一個價值100億澳元的項目，他們未支付專利費，並且在把價值超過2億美元的產品運往中國，卻沒有爲此付費。”

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.

中信是中國最大的國有綜合企業之一，2006年，該公司與擁有該項目鐵礦石採礦權的Mineralogy達成協議，合作開發一個價值20億美元的鐵礦石礦。

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.

受較高的勞動力成本及鐵礦石加工流程的複雜性影響，該項目成本擴大至80億美元。

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.

在向香港證交所提交的一份聲明中，中信表示，將於週五向西澳高等法院申請禁止令，制止 Mineralogy用自己發出的通知來中止中信方面的採礦權。

“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：“過去兩年中，因Mineralogy發出違約及終止採礦權通知書一事，已經三度與法院交涉。”

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4.15億美元以取得在中澳鐵礦項目的開採權，並支付了所有應付的專利費。

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.

中信最近針對帕爾默提起法律訴訟，帕爾默去年被選爲澳大利亞議會議員，通過他所在的“帕爾默團結黨”(Palmer United Party)影響澳大利亞參議院的權力。

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

中信指控這位礦業大亨通過Mineralogy非法利用1200萬美元爲他的競選活動融資。

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.

帕爾默否認這些指控。他週五告訴美國廣播公司(ABC)無線電臺，中信的指控是“無中生有，就像《愛麗絲夢遊仙境》，媒體可以借題發揮”。他隨即掛斷了採訪者電話。

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，帕爾默曾在中澳之間掀起了一場外交風波，當時他在澳大利亞國家電視臺發佈了一篇針對中國人的長篇演說，稱中國人是射殺自己人的“混蛋”。