Palmer’s $700m iron ore boom

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Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy paid more than $700 million of dividends in the past 18 months, as iron ore prices defied the pandemic gloom.

The company recently lodged its annual report for the 2021 financial year with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.

Royalty revenue paid to Mineralogy lifted nearly 40 per cent to be $465 million in the year to June 2021.

Mineralogy‘s earnings are largely driven by a royalty deal with Citic Pacific for the Sino Iron magnetite project.

Mineralogy was founded by Clive Palmer, and is controlled through Singaporean business Zeph Investments, according to ASIC documents.

Net profit was $236 million.

And the company paid out $708 million in dividends across the period from January 2021 to May of this year.

The biggest tranche was on February 10, when $400 million was dished out.

That came weeks before Mr Palmer‘s United Australia Party contested the recent federal election.

It was an eventful year for Mr Palmer out west.

He engaged in a prolonged spat with Premier Mark McGowan over the state’s border restrictions.

Then it was revealed he’d sued the WA government for its handling of a potential state agreement at the Balmoral South Iron Ore project.

Those battles later led to Mr Palmer and Mr McGowan slugging out defamation claims in court.

Mineralogy‘s balance sheet shows it owns $30.2 million of motor vehicles and $29 million of aircraft.

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