On 11 October 2019 the Western Australian government announced that it will introduce a new royalty regime for lithium producers in the form of a 5% feedstock royalty rate for lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate where those are the first products sold and the feedstock is spodumene concentrate. The announcement comes after a recent review … Read more
Overview On 15 May 2019, the Queensland Parliament passed the Natural Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2019 (NROLA Act). The Act implements a large number of changes across 34 pieces of land, water and mining legislation.1 Relevantly, the NROLA Act includes reforms to the administration of coal and petroleum exploration tenements in Queensland. This … Read more
The Broad-Based Socio-Economic Empowerment Charter for the Mining and Minerals Industry, 2018 (Mining Charter III or the Charter) came into force on Friday, 1 March 2019 – almost three years after the publication of the first draft. This brought to a close nearly three years of uncertainty and speculation regarding the nature and content of the final version of South … Read more
On 13 March 2019, the High Court handed down its first decision on native title compensation in ‘Timber Creek’ [2019] HCA 7 (Timber Creek). The High Court’s decision is a measured reflection of the need for Australian law to evolve in a manner that acknowledges, recognises and accommodates the diversity and individuality of native title … Read more
Proponents seeking consent for new projects, or modifications of existing projects, with ‘material’ greenhouse gas emissions across all industries in NSW should carefully assess climate change impacts, particularly if the proposal is not ‘carbon neutral’. What has happened? On 8 February 2019, the NSW Land and Environment Court (Court) refused development consent for a new … Read more
In an award dated 30 November 2017, an ICSID Tribunal ordered Peru to pay around US$30.4million to Canadian company Bear Creek Mining following its finding that a 2011 decree constituted an unlawful indirect expropriation of the Claimant’s right to operate the Santa Ana mine. More>> Read more
As we previously reported1, a consequence of the High Court of Australia’s decision in Forrest & Forrest Pty Ltd v Wilson2 is unexpected and unhelpful uncertainty regarding the validity of the grant of certain mining leases in Western Australia. The State Government and the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) are continuing to assess an … Read more
On 2 September 2017, the Government announced a welcome new four-year $100 million Junior Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (JMETC) following the expiry of the existing Exploration Development Incentive (EDI) exploration credit regime. The JMETC will commence this 2017-18 financial year. Companies still have until 30 September to report their estimated expenditure to access credits under … Read more
