Palmer is now threatening to place his main operating business – Queensland Nickel, into administration unless he can get the Queensland government to furnish a some kind of guarantee secured by what Palmer says is his company's $1 billion in assets. For Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk​, Palmer's position is a real dilemma given his nickel refinery employs about 800 people who could lose their jobs. But how safe is a guarantee over Palmer's assets, given there is an enormous question mark over their real value. The Queensland refinery's accounts record a book value of $1.9 billion for the assets. However, given the highly depressed nickel price and the fact that Queensland Nickel is burning cash at $1 million a fortnight, this book value seems more like fiction than fact.

Slapped down by banks All four of Australia's major banks, as well as Suncorp have rejected Palmer's attempts to borrow more money, which suggests they don't see the value in taking security over the assets. There are plenty of the view that Palmer's financial empire has using smoke and mirrors for years, something not helped by the fact that Palmer's Mineralogy is a private company and access to the details of his financial position is difficult. Palmer pocketed $US415 million ($572 million) in 2006, when he sold coal tenements to Chinese government controlled Citic, a company Palmer has been fighting in court for many years over royalty payments. Palmer lost the latest court case against Citic on Monday. He was seeking payment of $US48 million.

Crying poor Palmer claims that without this money, he will not be able to fund losses from the nickel refinery, which is his main operating asset. Palmer's lawyer is arguing that Queensland Nickel's position is worse than perilous and that Mineralogy's prospects of continuing litigation and maintaining valuable assets in its subsidiaries are seriously at risk, "to say the least". It appears likely that Palmer is facing severe financial difficulty, but the West Australian judge appeared unconvinced that there wasn't an element of bluff in these dire warnings. Queensland Nickel could easily have eaten through much if not all of what is left of Palmer's capital.

His cash splashes on the likes of robotic dinosaur golf courses and the Queensland resort, Coolum, a personal jet and his political campaign for federal parliament would also have chewed through a lot. However, Palmer may have been able to pull off his strange investment decisions had the nickel price and coal price not plummeted.