Specific resources project expertise
The lawyers in our firm have acted for major Australian and international clients and the firm has been engaged as the lead transaction lawyer on many international mining projects.Our firm's involvement in these projects have included:
- Undertaking initial due diligence investigations of the mining title position, legal tenure, the most appropriate corporate and other legal structures, and the normal checklist of matters to be investigated in such acquisitions and developments;
- Extensive participation in all the negotiations of the legal aspects of these projects from their conception to final execution of all documentation;
- Supervising the audit of the tax requirements which apply to a project, including available tax concessions, depreciation rates, etc, to ensure the most favourable tax treatment;
- General assistance on all aspects of negotiations with governmental authorities under the relevant mining laws, transport concessions (rail and port) and other necessary infrastructure for the project to be provided by or in conjunction with the government concerned;
- The negotiation and documentation of international sales contracts for the mine production (often amounting to billions of dollars);
- International anti-trust and competition law compliance;
- Advice and assistance on the most favourable financing structure and documentation for the project development, using local and international banking syndications.
Overall, project developments have often been very complex and have involved documentation of many hundreds of pages and numerous legal agreements, the special nature of due diligence and legal input required and intimate understanding of the way projects are negotiated and documented.