Cut and pasted this 31.Jan 2010 CourierMail article.Seems this...

Cut and pasted this 31.Jan 2010 CourierMail article.
Seems this Palmer Aussie bloke has better credentials than the climate changing Dudd in Canberra.

QUEENSLAND'S richest man Clive Palmer has been credited with a phenomenal multimillion-dollar turnaround at Townsville's near-mothballed Yabulu Nickel refinery.

Rising from the plains north of the city like a Mad Max film set, complete with rust-stained smokestacks and billowing steam pipes, the back-from-the-brink refinery is booming.

Just six months ago, the mining billionaire saved 950 jobs as he threw a lifeline to the north Queensland economy.

Under his new ownership the former BHP Billiton plant is back in the black and turning a profit after once bleeding an incredible $40 million a month.

"He's the Lang Hancock of the 2000s," Yabulu general manager Trefor Flood said. "He's larger than life; he cares about people."

Townsville, the state's second-largest city, depends on mining with the upbeat morale at Yabulu coming amid a revival of fortunes in commodity prices, mining start-ups and job ads.

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Related Coverage
Bligh backing Palmer The Australian, 14 Feb 2010
Deal makes everything AAA-OK Adelaide Now, 6 Feb 2010
Clive Palmer increases stake Courier Mail, 7 Jan 2010
Palmer wins control of GPN The Australian, 7 Jan 2010
Nickel mine to restart after sale The Australian, 10 Dec 2009
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"We escaped the guillotine," Mr Flood said.

"We were all staring down the barrel of wholesale job losses, shutting the gate and closing the plant.

"That knowledge helps lift the enthusiasm levels immensely."

Townsville's civic leaders have embraced the mining mogul as their own for his support of north Queensland's Fury soccer team, of surf clubs, and of school "breakfast for kids" programs.

Mr Palmer stands to become Australia's richest individual under a proposed $3 billion float of his Resourcehouse in Hong Kong, postponed until after Chinese New Year.

Mr Palmer hopes to tap what is potentially Australia's largest coal basin through his Waratah mine at Alpha, building a 500km rail link to Abbott Point port terminal near Bowen.

Figures for the privately owned Yabulu are not publicly available. But Mr Flood said they showed a clear profit with the plant producing 12,000 tonnes of nickel compacts a month for about $US17,500 a tonne.

Some optimistic analysts believe nickel may again hit record highs of $US50,000 a tonne under soaring global demand for stainless steel.

"We are using the same equipment, same people, to make the same product," Mr Flood said.

"But we are making the big tonnes because we have handed control over to the veteran operators on the line.

"Under Clive, we have given power to the people, and it is working."


Avagoodweekend,
YF

Ps Would a reduced 28% Company tax equate to a reduced
28% franking dividend.