CLIVE Palmer, the Australian mining entrepreneur who's planning to build a replica of the Titanic, won a lawsuit with CITIC Pacific Ltd over the timing of royalty payments from an US$8 billion iron ore mine.

The payments were due to Palmer for the use of his land when the ore was stockpiled and not, as CITIC Pacific claimed, after it went through initial processing, Western Australian Supreme Court Justice James Edelman said in a decision released in Perth yesterday.

Palmer's Mineralogy Pty had sued CITIC Pacific's Sino Iron unit claiming the company's mining rights and site-lease agreements should be terminated for failing to pay royalties of A$400,000 (US$391,000).

Palmer withdrew the request to kick CITIC Pacific off his land following the two-day trial, according to the judge.

Mineralogy filed papers "saying the parties had agreed to follow a particular course of conduct if Mineralogy's construction of the contracts were correct," Edelman wrote, without elaborating on the dealt. The judge said that, as a result, it wasn't necessary for him to rule on whether Palmer had the right to stop the mining lease.