Billionaire denies China coal deal

Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer has backed down from claims he signed a $A69.38 billion export coal contract with a Chinese group, saying the price was only an estimate.

The chairman of Resourcehouse Ltd also admitted on Tuesday he named the wrong Chinese company in a statement about "Australia's biggest ever resource contract" over the weekend.

At a media conference with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh on Saturday, Professor Palmer had announced the $US60 billion deal for its proposed China First coal mine and infrastructure project in central Queensland.

On Tuesday, in a media release, representatives for Mr Palmer said the contract was merely a 20-year supply deal for 30 million tonnes per year of coal at a price linked to the seaborne market.

Resourcehouse had estimated the cumulative value of coal sales under the deal to be worth about $US60 billion across the life of the agreement, the release said.

Earlier, China Power International Development Ltd, named in the original announcement about the deal, had denied the deal with Resourcehouse.

Prof Palmer's release admitted an error in naming the company in his initial statement and said his binding deal was instead with China Power International Holding Ltd, CPI's parent company.

China's official media reported that price negotiations had not even started yet.

Ms Bligh said she had personally sighted signed documents that related to the quantity of supply.

"The question of the contract price for that supply is something that would be negotiated probably on a tri-annual basis throughout the 20-year life of the supply contract," Ms Bligh said.

"So I think if you go back to Mr Palmer's press comments the other day what he made clear was that he had a contract to supply 30 million tonnes a year for a 20 year period," she said.

"I've certainly seen the documents that attest to that and the documents also spell out the need for the price of that supply to be negotiated on a regular basis throughout the 20 years."