PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Embattled miner Queensland Nickel has requested an urgent meeting with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Treasurer Curtis Pitt over the future of its Townsville refinery.
The cry for help comes a day after mining personality Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy lost a bid in the Western Australian Supreme Court to get Chinese State-owned CITIC to pay a A$48-million advance on disputed royalties over the Sino iron-ore project, in Western Australia.
In its court application, Mineralogy claimed that failure to obtain the A$48-million would result in “irreparable harm” to Palmer’s other companies, which included Queensland Nickel among others.
In its documents, Mineralogy claimed that Queensland Nickel was experiencing a liquidity crisis and would require a cash injection of A$28-million to avoid the closure of its refinery, and job losses of 767 employees, to avoid the company being placed into administration.
However, in his ruling on Monday, Judge Paul Allan Tottle said that there was no basis in principle upon which a court could order a payment to be made in respect of a claim of damages, before the claim had been determined.
Queensland Nickel MD Clive Mensink said on Tuesday that the Queensland government needed to support 2 500 local workers in Townsville, as it was paying A$40-million a year to foreign-owned Boyne Smelters in Gladstone.
“Queensland Treasurer Pitt gives away A$40-million each year to the foreign owned Gladstone smelter but has refused to support Queensland company Queensland Nickel, the largest employer in North Queensland,’’ Mensink said.
“The government needs to give the same level of priority to the people of Townsville that it gives the people of Gladstone.
“I call on the Premier and the Treasurer to clear their diaries for urgent talks on these matters, for the sake of more than 2 000 local jobs,’’ he said.
Mensink said Queensland Nickel was not seeking any funds from the Queensland government, but rather a guarantee on a short-term basis secured by more than a billion dollars of assets.
“The current nickel price has been as low as $3.50/lb but by June 2016 current forecasts support our operations,’’ he said.
“The company has been operating for over 40 years, many of those with the Queensland government as the major shareholder. Previous governments have provided support at times of low nickel,” he added.
Queensland Nickel is one of the Australia's biggest nickel refineries with a capacity of 35 000 t/y.