Mineralogy is an

Australian mining Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

company owned by

Clive Palmer Clive Frederick Palmer (born 26 March 1954) is an Australian billionaire businessman and politician. He has iron ore, nickel, and coal holdings. Palmer owns many businesses such as Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel at Townsville, t ...

. The company is involved in mining exploration and development, principally

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

, in Western Australia. Mineralogy had assets of 594 million in 2018. It entered a 415 million arrangement with the Chinese company

CITIC CITIC Group Corporation Ltd., formerly the China International Trust Investment Corporation (CITIC), is a state-owned investment company of the People's Republic of China, established by Rong Yiren in 1979 with the approval of Deng Xiaoping. ...

in 2006. Mineralogy and CITIC have been in legal disputes over royalties and other matters since 2013.

History

Mineralogy was founded in 1984 by

, who had become wealthy through property development in the Gold Coast. In 1985, the company acquired exploration leases for magnetite tenements in

Cape Preston Cape Preston is a rocky headland located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, situated West South West of Karratha. It lies on the tribal land of the indigenous Nhuwala. Cape Preston is a standard Bureau of Meteorology reference point ...

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

, from the U.S. iron ore processor M. A. Hanna Company. Palmer transferred the tenement's soon-to-expire exploration rights to his Queensland property company, GSS Homes. In 2006, it signed a deal with the Chinese infrastructure company

CITIC Pacific CITIC Limited () is a conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong. Its shares are listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and it is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index. 58% of its issued shares are owned by the Chinese state-own ...

to develop a small portion of a large

deposit in the

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. The agreement involved the development of two

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula . It is one of the iron oxide, oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetization, magnetized to become a ...

mines and construction of port infrastructure at

. According to Palmer the company owns more than of land in the region. Mineralogy was paid 415 million for the rights to mine the ore. According to Palmer the reserves contain 160 billion tonnes of iron ore. In 2009, Mineralogy acquired the Australian coal mining company Waratah Coal. By 2012, Mineralogy acquired the rights to thermal coal deposits situated in the

Galilee Basin The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. The Galilee Basin is part of a larger Carboniferous to Mid-Triassic basin system that contains the Cooper Basin, situated towards the south-west ...

. Estimates of the size of the deposits reach 100 billion tonnes of coal. Mineralogy has been in a long-running legal dispute with

CITIC Limited CITIC Limited () is a conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong. Its shares are listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and it is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index. 58% of its issued shares are owned by the Chinese state-own ...

's (formerly CITIC Pacific Limited) Australian subsidiary companies that are exploiting the magnetite mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In 2013 Mineralogy commenced legal proceedings to resolve a dispute about royalties it claimed to be due to it, which in 2017 the

Western Australian Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters (although it usually only hears matters involving sums of or more) ...

delivered judgement in favour of Mineralogy. The CITIC parties appealed the decision of the trial judge to the Court of Appeal, but lost. The outcome of the proceedings above is that Mineralogy received US$350 million with ongoing royalties of US$ 200 million annually. As at 30 June 2018, Mineralogy had consolidated Net Asset Position reported at a value of AUD $451 million (audited). On 27 September 2018,

also confirmed that as a result of the wins in the Western Australian Courts and the subsequent payments of royalties to Mineralogy, work has re-commenced by Mineralogy subsidiary

Blue Star Line The Blue Star Line was a Merchant Navy (United Kingdom), British passenger and cargo shipping company formed in 1911, being in operation until 1998. Formation Blue Star Line was formed as an initiative by the Vestey Brothers, a Liverpool-ba ...

to build the ocean liner ''

Titanic II ''Titanic II'' is a planned passenger ocean liner intended to be a functional modern-day replica of the ''Olympic''-class RMS ''Titanic''. The new ship is planned to have a gross tonnage (GT) of 56,000, while the original ship measured about ...

''. The ship was forecast to set sail in 2022, and to follow the original route of the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

''. Mineralogy took Western Australia to the High Court over the ''Iron Ore Processing (Mineralogy Pty Ltd) Agreement Amendment Act 2022'' in '' Mineralogy v Western Australia'', but lost. As of 2023, Mineralogy has ten exploration and prospecting permits in New Zealand, spanning over , over of which overlap with conservation land, including near

Lake Brunner Lake Brunner ( or ) is the largest lake in the West Coast Region of New Zealand, located southeast of Greymouth. The main settlement, Moana, New Zealand, Moana, is on its northern shore. It is an important settlement and waystation for local M ...

Political donations

Clive Palmer established the

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four Elections in Australia, federal elections in that time, usually governing Coalition (Australia), in coalition ...

in 2013. In 2022, Mineralogy donated $116 million dollars to the United Australia Party, which won a single seat in the

upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

in the 2022 federal election.

References

External links

Company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mineralogy (Mining Company) Mining companies of Australia Mining in Queensland Companies based in Queensland Non-renewable resource companies established in 1984 1984 establishments in Australia Privately held companies of Australia

History

Political donations

See also

References

External links