Hancock Prospecting has lost a bid to shut down court cases brought by fellow mining giants Wright Prospecting and DFD Rhodes until the outcome of a family arbitration, after a judge found the company’s own forensic choices made the risk of inconsistent decisions inevitable.
Mining company Downer EDI has won its bid to review documents between Alinta Energy and a superintendent who allegedly acted improperly in a spat over a $208 million solar gas hybrid project in the Pilbara region.
A judge who previously acted for a United Petroleum Group company in a “highly acrimonious” case eight years ago has refused to recuse herself from adjudicating a new dispute involving a related company.
A judge has approved a $450,000 penalty against Australian Mines in ASIC proceedings brought after its managing director was allegedly caught lying at an investment conference about the value of an offtake agreement and funding for a project at its cobalt and nickel mine in Queensland.
The state of Western Australia has been left with a $2 million legal bill for defending a defamation action by billionaire Clive Palmer and advancing cross-claims on behalf of premier Mark McGowan, which a judge blasted as “a futile exercise”.
The Victoria Supreme Court has dismissed a bid to quash the Environment Protection Authority’s decision to renew the mining licences of the state’s three remaining coal power stations, in a test case for the state’s Climate Change Act.
Lithium prospecting company AVZ Minerals is facing a potential class action for allegedly misleading shareholders about its ownership rights to its flagship lithium project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has brought action against mining equipment company Qteq and its executive chairman Simon Ashton over allegations of bid rigging and other cartel conduct.
The High Court has unanimously dismissed Western Power’s challenge to a judgment which found the state-owned electricity supplier breached its duty of care to inspect power poles on private land and was partly liable for property damage from the 2014 Perth Hills bushfire.
Aluminium giant Alcoa has sued AusNet and Powercor over a 2016 power outage that left the future of its Victorian smelter site in doubt.