Another miner’s application to throw Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy off a sought-after West Australian mining tenement has succeeded, with the state upholding a magistrate’s recommendation indicating Mineralogy was 'squatting' on the lease.

Mining laws aim to ensure a tenant can't 'warehouse' or 'squat' on an exploration tenement to stop another company using it; and there is plenty of interest in this land, south-west of Karratha in the state’s Pilbara region.

Chinese-owned Sino Iron, which has been fighting with Mineralogy over expansion plans, sits between the two tenements now both held by Leichhardt. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Energy Minister Bill Johnston has now approved warden John O’Sullivan’s recommendation that Mr Palmer’s private company forfeit its exploration licence.

The warden dismissed arguments from Mr Palmer’s representatives that Mineralogy was so "starved" for funds it couldn’t afford $50,000 on exploration to meet lease conditions, saying there was evidence it was being "warehoused".