Yahoo Finance Clive Palmer's wealth set to tumble by $1 billion: BRW
Billionaire Clive Palmer's personal wealth is set to take a tumble by a massive $1 billion even as his political clout gets bigger, BRW reports.
According to the magazine - that’s scheduled to publish its annual Rich List on Friday – Palmer’s wealth will have weakened significantly from $2.2 billion last year.
The decline has been attributed to falling coal prices but also to Palmer's troubles with his Sino Iron company.
Palmer is currently the Member for Fairfax in the House of Representatives, and refers to himself as a "full-time politician".
Related: Clive Palmer blames the media for resignation
From July 1, his Palmer United Party will hold the balance of power in the Senate.
Palmer is not the only one taking the hit on BRW’s Rich List.
Fortunes of several other miners, including QCoal managing director Chris Wallin, are also expected to have declined, the magazine reports.
Palmer’s war with the Chinese
On June 6, Palmer resigned as director of Mineralogy - his own company – in view of a court battle with a Chinese conglomerate.
He also resigned his directorship of two companies behind his loss-making nickel refinery.
Mineralogy is in a court dispute over iron ore royalties with Chinese state-owned Citic Pacific Corporation, which operates a $10 billion mine in Western Australia.
Related: What the rich people worry about
The legal stoush is over royalty payments for the Sino Iron project in WA's Pilbara.
Citic claims that Mineralogy has provided no documentation to explain two withdrawals totalling $12 million from an account set up to run a port at Cape Preston.
WA Premier Colin Barnett weighed in on the issue last month saying Mr Palmer was threatening relations with China.
"I've spent hours and hours negotiating issues with Clive in good faith and then found that he will try and exploit any small discrepancy, and he's doing that with the relationship with Chinese investors in our iron ore industry.
I launched defamation action today against @JeffSeeney over his false accusations on @730qld. Any damages awarded will go to charity #polqld
— Clive Palmer (@CliveFPalmer) June 20, 2014
It's not doing this state any good at all.
"He has used his position - perhaps not improperly, but unfairly - to make it extremely difficult for the Chinese group that bought those rights to make the project work successfully."
