Wyloo back in court over tenement spat

Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals has launched an 11th-hour bid to overturn the Supreme Court’s dismissal of its tenement spat with sand miner Quarry Park, Cauldron Energy and Minister Bill Johnston.

The billionaire’s private company sued Quarry Park last year, claiming its 2013 mining lease and prospecting licence over 95-hectares in Minderoo was invalid because it didn’t include a mineralisation report; as required by the state’s Mining Act.

Karratha Registrar Michelle Baker, Mining Minister Bill Johnson, explorer Cauldron Energy and Onslow Resources were all named as parties to the action.

Wyloo demanded declaratory relief.

The stoush began after Wyloo applied for an exploration licence over the area just weeks after Quarry Park inked a deal to offload its lease and tenements to ASX-listed Cauldron.

Despite securing an interim injunction preventing the lease transfer, the case was ultimately dismissed by Justice Paul Tottle in October last year.

While concluding Quarry's lease was invalid, Justice Tottle said that declaring that more than eight years after the lease was granted would be “fundamentally inimical” to the public interest in the administration of the act.

That's because mining lease disputes are subject to a six-year statute of limitations.

He concluded that even so, as transferee, Cauldron was safe because it had secured protections afforded by a special clause in the act.

“Making a declaration of invalidity in those circumstances would have the potential to undermine the confidence of those involved in the resources industry in the security offered by title to mining tenements,” he said.

But Wyloo refutes that.

Wyloo’s case referenced findings in the landmark case of Forrest & Forrest, in which the High Court ruled a permit could be deemed invalid if it had "insufficient information".

It launched its appeal on five grounds, poring over the application of the provisions in the case, definitions and the scope of protections, and asked the court to consider whether the judge erred in not granting relief.

During a hearing this afternoon, Wyloo’s lawyer Anthony Papamatheos pushed for the court to invalidate the lease.

With the transfer of the lease not yet formally registered, Wyloo wants a permanent injunction preventing it on the basis that any instrument lodged for an invalid lease would have a defect incapable of correction.

Mr Papamatheos argued that the dicta of the High Court only applied when the transfer was registered.

Mr Forrest's company told the court it was hoping to get hold of the declaration before their competing prospecting licences head to the warden.

The court was told the two may have to go head-to-head in a battle for priority once the injunction is discharged and the transfer is executed; with the warden faced with the challenge of deciding who should be dealt with first.

"It would be thought that the officer of the department [Department of Mines], if the Minister is bound by the court declaration, it would not accept the terms of the purported transfer," Mr Papamatheos said.

The hearing continued this afternoon.

With the matter still before the court, a spokesperson for Wyloo told Business News the business was not in a position to comment.