Palmer in alleged Mining Act breach

Clive Palmer’s private company, Mineralogy, took control of a potentially lucrative mineral tenement in Western Australia six days after it was given up by a listed company led by one of his Senate candidates, Zhenya Wang, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The way the tenement was transferred raises questions over whether Mineralogy unfairly obtained an asset it had no right to, whether Wang allowed that to happen and if there was a breach of the state’s Mining Act.

Wang, who is awaiting a Senate recount to see if he has been elected, has denied doing anything wrong.

Australasian Resources, majority-owned by Palmer, surrendered exploration rights to a potential iron ore tenement in 2011. Mineralogy claimed the rights days later.

Leighton’s suffered from factional strife

Former Leighton Holdings executives says warring factions and the vulnerability of its largest shareholder, Hochtief, to a hostile takeover prevented it from tackling corporate governance problems at the time bribery was alleged to have occurred, according to the Australian Financial Review.

In 2010, the same year in which former chief executives Wal King and David Stewart were alleged to have been aware of kickbacks paid to secure contracts in Iraq, King was fighting a battle with Hochtief to stay on as chief executive, former Leighton executives said.

“Wal desperately wanted to stay, so he couldn’t have any bad news, he had to keep the company and the share price growing,” one person said.

King has denied having any knowledge of the alleged corruption and claimed this week that he had become a “lame duck” CEO by 2010, the final year of his 23-year stint at the helm, because Stewart, then Leighton’s co-chief operating officer, wanted his job.

Rio Tinto likely to avoid payment of under-threat minerals tax

Rio Tinto is not expected to make a Minerals Resource Rent Tax payment for the September quarter despite a stronger than expected iron ore price, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Amid expectations legislation to repeal the tax will be tabled next month, Australia’s largest iron ore producer was scheduled to have made an MRRT payment for the September quarter to the Australian Tax Office on Monday.

The MRRT attracted $A126 million from resources companies as at the second quarter of this year, according to previous reports.