Chris Ellison-led Mineral Resources and business partner-turned-rival Steve Wyatt’s Destec have reached a peace deal over a highly-charged document-swap, as the battle over their rail venture continues.
Chris Ellison-led Mineral Resources and business partner-turned-rival Steve Wyatt’s Destec have reached a peace deal over a highly-charged document-swap plan, as the battle over their rail venture continues.
The matter returned to the Supreme Court this morning, where MinRes and Destec confirmed they had finally forged a way out of the “morass” over what files should be kept under lock and key.
The mining giant and Destec had been at odds after the court granted orders preventing Mr Ellison from inspecting documents Destec deemed too sensitive.
But MinRes pushed for access, insisting the miner’s top bosses needed to see the documents to background the team fighting Destec on another front, with separate allegations of intellectual property theft also on foot.
Today, Destec returned to court with a fresh legal team and a new inspection proposal, a key step in its damages claim over allegations the miner failed to approach their ‘BOSS’ joint venture in good faith.
Justice Jennifer Hill accepted the refined inspection regime, which will inform the exchange of hundreds of pages of documents.
MinRes’s lawyer Steven Pengalis told the court the conferral process had involved sensible and responsible concessions, but had resulted in a practical resolution reached without burdening the court.
“The fact of the matter is that we want to make sure it is undertaken right,” he said.
“It will take four weeks, but your honour, that isn’t significant in the overall scheme of things because we need to get this right.”
Destec will have one month to compile the documentation, with inspection scheduled for October 21.
Destec launched legal action against the Chris Ellison-led company back in 2019 over allegations its intellectual property had been “misappropriated” in the development of its bulk ore rail system to transport ore from mine to port.
Destec claimed MinRes registered separate business names for the product and even ventured to China to progress its development without Destec’s knowledge.
In the months before lodging the writ, Destec claimed it attempted peace talks with the company, but to no avail.
Just months after the lawsuit began, Mineral Resources returned fire with a claim of its own, alleging that Destec used its intellectual property in the design and manufacture of processing plants to secure a contract.
Mr Ellison and Mr Wyatt established Crushing Services International in the 1990s, leading the company together until Mr Wyatt's departure four years ago.
