Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has insisted a major coal deal will go ahead despite denials from the Chinese buyer that it had signed a binding agreement.
Palmer, one of Australia's richest men, said China Power International Holding (CPIH) had confirmed its "strong commitment" to the project, which he puts at 60 billion US dollars and says is Australia's record export deal.
The businessman also shrugged off an embarrassing error in which Resourcehouse wrongly named CPIH's subsidiary, China Power International Development, as the buyer when it announced the deal on Saturday.
"It really doesn't make a difference whether we made a clerical error, the deal is going ahead," he said.
The colourful mining magnate was speaking after CPIH said it had only signed a "framework agreement" rather than a binding contract, as announced by Resourcehouse.
Palmer said the title of the agreement had "no legal impact whatsoever", adding that it was "the terms and conditions of the contract that make it binding".
"It's not just one contract in isolation, it's the four of those contracts working together which makes the deal financeable and deliverable in Australia," he said.
"And if the (Chinese) government didn't want to do it or didn't want to go ahead with that, they wouldn't be entering into any of those agreements or making any of those commitments."
He admitted some of the deal's fine print was still being worked out and would be cemented by the end of April.
"We've finalised what details we're able to in that contract, recognising there are some other details which have yet to be finalised," Palmer explained.
"The issues that are covered by the other half of the coal purchase agreement are things that we've agreed to agree upon later," he added.
He lashed out at "very, very poor" media reporting of the deal, complaining that "no one checked... no one contacted me" after CPIH's statement late on Tuesday.
The Chinese company said it had not agreed a price for the deal to buy 30 million tonnes of coal a year over 20 years from the proposed China First mine in central Queensland.
"The Sales and Purchase of Coal Agreement shall be subject to further negotiations between the parties," CPIH said in its statement, adding the final contract would take "some time" to complete.
Palmer said the 60 billion US dollar price-tag was an estimate only, based on current coal benchmark prices.
"There is no reference to a price figure," he said of the contract.
"We're saying we're selling it to you on a 20-year basis with annual review based on the world price."
He also played down expectations that he was about to float Resourcehouse on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
"I've announced no IPO in Hong Kong ever," he said. "There is no proposal for the stock exchange in Hong Kong that is current for us to have an IPO."
The China First project, which is expected to begin construction later this year, would include open-cut and underground mines and a 495-kilometre (308-mile) rail line and create tens of thousands of jobs.
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