The PNGExposed blog has turned up some rather interesting connections (see below) between Australian mining billionaire, Clive Palmer, and MCC, the Chinese state-owned company at the heart of the controversial Ramu nickel mine. Both Palmer and MCC were at last weekend's fundraising dinner for the party of PNG Environment Minister Benny Allen.
Meanwhile, The Australian newspaper, has given a new twist to the story - Palmer launches $3.6bn Hong Kong float - with the news MCC will be a 'cornerstone investor' in Palmer's public listing of his company Resourcehouse.
Clive Palmer, Papua New Guinea and the Chinese connection
Questions have been asked in the media [12] about exactly what Australian billionaire Clive Palmer was doing, along with Chinese state owned mining company MCC, owner of the Ramu nickel mine, at the United Resources Party fundraiser in Port Moresby on Saturday night. Australian Senator, Bob Brown, has suggested Palmer should stay out of PNG politics [13].
But it seems Clive Palmer has some very deep connections with China and MCC in particular, as well as other Chinese state-owned enterprises working in PNG. He also has an interest in at least three petroleum exploration licences in PNG. So its is, perhaps, naive to think he will not be doing even more in the future to further help the fundraising efforts of Environment Minister Benny Allen and Petroleum and Energy Minister, William Duma.
“Queensland coal baron Clive Palmer has built his entire fortune [estimated at $3.5 billion] around the Chinese. They are his chief institutional investors, his main customers, his financiers and his mine builders.” [6]
In 2006/7 Palmer sold iron ore deposits to China’s Citic Pacific for US$415 million [1] but this was just the prelude to some much bigger deals.
In June 2010 Palmer announced that, in a partnership with MCC, he had sold, through his privately held company Resourcehouse, an annual 30 million tonnes of coal to China Power in a 20 year deal that could be worth US$60 billion [1]
In the ‘China First Coal project’, coal will be sourced from underground and strip mines in northern Queensland. US$5.6 billion of the $8 billion development cost is being covered by the Export-Import Bank of China [1] – the same bank that is financing the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone in Madang.
MCC will be supervising the work for the coal project which includes building the mines, port infrastructure and a 500km rail link [1] and also arranged the debt funding and provided equity [8]
MCC bought a 5% stake in Resourcehouse in February 2010 for US$200m [3]
Sino Coal International Engineering, China Communications Construction and state-owned China Railway Group will be subcontractors [1]
Next month Resourcehouse will be floated on the Hong Kong stock exchange in an attempt to raise Au$3.4 billion to part finance the China First coal project. China Railway Group is expected to buy US$200 million worth of shares [3]
China Raliway Construction has four projects in PNG, the latest, announced in June 2011, is to build the Windward Apartments for Steamships [5]
Resourcehouse also has a ‘China First Iron ore project’ in Western Australia with a planned capacity of 12.2 million tonnes annually of magnetite ora and reserves of 1.13 billion tonnes. The project will cost US$2.7 billion [7]
Palmer’s company Mineralogy has an oil and gas exploration interest in PNG through Chinampa Exploration [8]. Chinampa is listed as the owner of three offshore Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPL254, 255 and 256) in PNG [11] Palmer owns a 50 per cent stake in Chinampa, but there is little publically available information on this business [9]. The private oil and gas exploration company, Finder Exploration, says on its website that it operates 3 exploration permits in PNG on behalf of Chinampa [10].
Palmer himself says he has been to China more than 50 times and has a long-term personal contact with the nation stretching back to 1962 when, as a boy, he met Pu Yi, the last Emporer of China [2]. Palmer has a home in Beijing [4]
Papua New Guinea has no laws governing the funding of political parties and no register of political donations.
References
[1] Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/06/clive-palmer-china-business-energy-coal.html
[2] Brisbane Times: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/palmers-3b-china-odyssey-20100204-necb.html
[3] The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/city-beat/cliver-palmers-resourcehouse-seeks-us36bn-in-ipo/story-fn4xq4v1-1226057206157
[4] News.com: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/06/07/12153_more-gossip-news.html
[5] Capital Vue: http://www.capitalvue.com/home/CE-news/inset/@10063/post/1193821
[6] Business Spectator: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/RICH-PICKINGS-Chinas-cash-flow-bonanza-pd20110428-GCBFF?OpenDocument&src=sph&src=rot
[7] The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/betting-on-centrebet-takeover-heats-up/story-e6frg9if-1226054252578
[8] Mineralogy: http://www.mineralogy.com.au/images/presentations/20090702_Presentation.pdf
[9] Business Spectator: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/clive-palmer-resourcehouse-IPO-coal-metallurgical–pd20100212-2L7YR?OpenDocument
[10] Finderexp.com: http://www.finderexp.com/AboutUs/History/tabid/54/language/en-US/Default.aspx
[11] http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20071221/pdf/316n5cfcv0qhpm.pdf
[12] Post Courier, 17 May 2011, The Drum.
[13] http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8250353/greens-query-miners-political-role-in-png
Add a comment to this post
