Profit from a Pilbara mine at the centre of a scrap between its Chinese operators and billionaire landlord Clive Palmer have more than halved as a decision looms over its expansion.
Profit from a Pilbara mine at the centre of a scrap between its Chinese operators and billionaire landlord Clive Palmer have more than halved as a decision looms over its expansion.
CITIC Pacific on Friday reported a $273 million profit from its Sino Iron magnetite mine near Karratha in 2024, down 67 per cent from $835m in 2023.
The filings with the corporate regulator put numbers to CITIC’s assertions in the past year that its inability to progress an expansion due to a feud with Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy risked the operation’s future.
Production from the mine was slashed last year as CITIC waiting for Mineralogy to approve its expansion so it could start the regulatory approval process.
“Unless approval can be obtained to allow extension of the mine pit and establishment of additional storage areas for waste rock and tailings, constraints on pit size and waste and tailings storage capacity will ultimately force the suspension of operations,” CITIC said in its report.
“In the short term, these constraints are reflected in reduced concentrate production commencing from calendar year 2024.”
CITIC developed a mine continuation plan in 2017 which required access to tenements owned by Mineralogy and has been in court with Mr Palmer over the matter since 2019.
Court proceedings back then centered around the alleged refusal of Mineralogy to grant tenure for the Sino Iron project’s proposed 25-year, two-billion-tonne expansion.
Current court proceedings focus on a smaller mine plan submitted in August 2023.
Mineralogy and CITIC finally approved those plans in May, however, the two companies are still locking horns over damages due to project delays caused by the feud, and over ‘unexplained deletions’ and ‘lacking information’ required under its State Agreement.
Some 3,000 people work at Sino Iron, predominantly on a fly-in, fly-out basis.
WA Premier Roger Cook’s decision on whether to approve the expansion is due in early July.
Mineralogy made $413m in royalties from the Sino project last year, down about $35m.
