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MELBOURNE - Australian tycoon <strong>Clive Palmer</strong> has tentatively lined up Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tocone crushers for nickel laterite ore finance a $3.9-billion iron-ore project in Western Australia, his company, Australasian Resources, said on Tuesday.</p>
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Australasian, 68% owned by Palmer, said it had received a non-binding letter of interest from ICBC to finance the Balmoral South magnetite iron-ore project, located 80 km (50 miles) southwest of the town of Karratha on the Indian Ocean.</p>
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The firm holds rights to mine one-billion tons of magnetite ore from which it plans to produce 12 million ton a year of high grade iron concentrate and pellets for 25 years.</p>
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Australasian&#39;s thinly traded shares jumped 8.3% to A$0.13, to value the company at A$60-million after the announcement.</p>
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Australasian has tapped Metallurgical Corp of China to handle engineering, procurement and construction management for the project and help it secure 75% of the financing for the mine from Chinese banks.</p>
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The company appointed US investment bank Jefferies &amp; Co earlier this month to help it raise $1.4-billion through the sale of a high yield bond.</p>
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Palmer, a maverick willing to take on everyone from the Australian government to the vaunted head of Australia&#39;s soccer federation, recently announced plans to build an &quot;unsinkable&quot; version of the Titanic.<br />
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