PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Supreme Court on Monday dismissed claims by Chinese government-owned Citic Limited, which claimed that mining magnate Clive Palmer had misappropriated some A$12-million from a port fund associated with the Sino iron-ore project.

Citic claimed that Palmer had committed a breach of trust when he withdrew A$12-million from a fund established to manage a port connected to the Western Australian project, in 2013.

The privately held Mineralogy, which Palmer owns, repaid the funds in November last year.

Supreme Court Judge David Jackson on Monday ruled that the port fund was not part of a trust, dismissing Citic’s claims.

“The chairperson of Citic Limited owes me an apology for questioning my integrity and creating false impressions in the Australian community following the dismissal of the claim and allegations which have been proven to have no merit,” Palmer said in a statement on Monday.

“The facts of the claim were for an improper purpose because Citic Limited was refusing to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars of iron-ore, illegally occupying an Australian port and failing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to Mineralogy,” Palmer added.

Palmer was currently in the midst of another legal battle with Citic over unpaid royalties from the $10-billion Sino project.

Mineralogy leased the Sino iron mine site to Citic Pacific, which acquired the right to mine two-billion tonnes of magnetite ore in the Pilbara from Mineralogy, between 2006 and 2008. During 2012, the company exercised its option to acquire the right for another one-billion tonnes.

However, in 2012, Citic Pacific received notices from Mineralogy alleging that terms in the mining right and site lease agreement had been breached, with Mineralogy maintaining that it was entitled to a royalty payment of 3c/t of all materials taken from the mine area, including waste material.