Clive Palmer's estranged Chinese joint venture partner has lost an appeal over royalties paid to the billionaire's private company from their massive iron ore project in Western Australia's Pilbara.
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CITIC built the multi-billion dollar Sino Iron project on land owned by Mineralogy, and has been mining ore since 2013, but the parties have been locked in a dispute over how to calculate the royalties.
A WA Supreme Court judge ruled against CITIC in 2017, ordering it to hand Mineralogy $US149.4 million in back-payments.
The Chinese government-owned company said it was disappointed by the judgment handed down in the WA Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
Mr Palmer declared the ruling a significant win.
"It's disappointing the Chinese government refuses to obey Australian law for the best part of six years now," he told AAP.
"It's only because they had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the court that they bothered."
Mr Palmer said it was not significant part of CITIC's three-prong appeal argument was successful and he didn't believe the company would take the case to the High Court as it had "no merit".
The companies are currently embroiled in separate legal battles, with CITIC claiming Mineralogy has refused to join its efforts seeking state government approval for additional land needed for waste storage.
Mineralogy claims CITIC should have put $500 million into an environmental rehabilitation fund.
Mr Palmer is in Karratha and said he had been flying over the nearby project taking photographs of CITIC "destroying the environment".
CITIC has previously warned the disputes and Mineralogy's "uncooperative" approach posed a threat to the future of Sino Iron, which employs about 3000 workers and contractors.
"We will continue to do everything possible to put Sino Iron on a long-term sustainable footing," CITIC said in a statement on Tuesday.
The WA government is looking into intervening in the bitter impasse by amending the state's legally-binding agreement with the companies covering the project.
Mr Palmer accused Premier Mark McGowan of "pushing the Chinese barrow" and said talk of intervention was "just ridiculous".
Mr McGowan recently labelled the Queenslander a "menace".
Australian Associated Press
