澳洲富豪与中信泰富因采矿权起纠纷

Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer, who is planning to build a replica of the Titanic, is embroiled in a legal spat with China's Citic Pacific 0267.HK +0.20% that threatens to deliver a damaging blow.

准备打造翻版泰坦尼克号(Titanic)的澳大利亚矿业大亨克莱夫·帕尔默(Clive Palmer)与中国中信泰富有限公司(Citic Pacific)卷入了一场法律纠纷。这场纠纷有可能给他带来不利影响。

In 2006, the Australian billionaire leased to state-owned Citic the rights to mine iron ore on his land in Western Australia for about US$415 million. The agreement was one of the first major Chinese investments in Australian resources.

2006年，帕尔默以大约4.15亿美元的价格将其西澳大利亚州土地上的铁矿石开采权出租给中国国有企业中信泰富。这是中国在澳大利亚资源行业第一批重要投资中的一笔。

But the Sino Iron project has been dogged by cost overruns and delays. At about $8 billion, the budget is now more than three times as much as initial estimates when Citic bought in.

但这个名为“中澳铁矿(Sino Iron)的项目屡次出现超支和拖延的情况。目前的预算达到了80亿美元左右，超过中信泰富购进时最初估计数额的三倍。

On top of that, Mr. Palmer has recently threatened to lock Citic out of the mine. He is arguing that the Chinese company must pay royalties from when mining started in 2008. Citic says royalties are owed from a much later date, only after the site starts producing iron-ore concentrates, which is expected to be in March.

除此以外，帕尔默最近还威胁不让中信泰富使用矿山。他认为中信泰富必须支付2008年开始开采以来的权利金。中信泰富说，权利金的起始计算时间应该大大延后，要等矿山开始出产铁精矿（预计在明年3月份）之后。

The dispute has ended up in the Western Australia Supreme Court. That's surely a sign that relations between the sides are very strained. In dollar terms, what's at stake isn't much more than chump change岸less than $10 million.

这场争端最终诉诸西澳州高级法院(Western Australia Supreme Court)。这显然说明双方关系非常紧张。按美元计算，诉讼标的额不是很高，不到1,000万美元。

The court has already ruled in favor of Citic once; it granted an injunction to stop Mr. Palmer from moving ahead with a plan to lock Citic out the mine last week. The royalties case has yet to play out.

法院已经做了一次有利于中信泰富的裁决。它在上周命令帕尔默停止推进将中信泰富逐出矿山的计划。权利金一案还有待裁决。

Whatever the court decides, though, Mr. Palmer could find himself losing out. Crossing a state-owned Chinese business doesn't look too smart for someone whose fortune is tied to selling Australian resources to China.

不管法院怎样裁决，到头来帕尔默可能都是输家。对于一位通过向中国出售澳大利亚资源发财的人来说，惹怒一家中国国有企业似乎不太明智。