Mining

Advising on various cornerstone matters and transactions, including on its:

• divestment of the Pajingo, Edna May, Mount Carlton and Cracow gold mines;
• acquisition of Kundana Gold Pty Ltd, a 51% interest in the East Kundana Joint Venture, 75% interest in the West Kundana Joint Venture and the Carbine Project;
• synthetic joint venture arrangements with Glencore along with the equity raising and debt package to fund the share-level acquisition of the Ernest Henry copper-gold mine for $1 billion;
• $247 million rights issue to fund the US$500 million purchase price of Cowal Gold Mine; and
• development of its new copper and gold mine at Mt Carlton. This involved the preparation of the D&C contract and procurement templates for the development.

Advising on a range of issues arising from the development and operation of the Sino Iron Project, Australia's largest magnetite iron ore project, including on its:

• State Agreements, approvals, commercial issues, and the acquisition by CITIC of the shares in a company holding a one billion tonne magnetite ore mining right;
• various proceedings in the Supreme Court of Western Australia between the CITIC parties and Mineralogy Pty Ltd, including on the establishment and operation of a Site Remediation Fund; alleged foreign exchange losses relating to the payment of GST on royalty amounts; costs associated with the administration of contracts between the parties; issues affecting mine continuation and life-of-mine operations, and in its defence of proceedings relating to claims under a guarantee and indemnity; and
• ongoing strategic advisory work and governance work.

Strategic adviser for Rio Tinto including advising on:

• the formation of Pilbara Iron, an infrastructure operator and manager, between Rio Tinto and its joint venture partners, Nippon Steel, Mitsui & Co and Sumitomo Metals;
• joint venture arrangements, including on expansions to 360mtpa in the Pilbara;
• BOO / BOOT procurement for the Gudai-Darri mine;
• the development of its Western Range mine, including procurement and construction strategy;
• its flagship multi-billion dollar long term copper mine and development in Mongolia, known as Oyu Tolgoi;
• more than US$9 billion of coal and other divestments in Australia over the last decade, through competitive and private sale processes; and
• the proposed $100 billion Rio Tinto / BHP West Australian iron ore production joint venture.

Advising on the development of its Kathleen Valley Lithium and Tantalum Project, including on its fully-underwritten institutional placement to raise approximately $450 million, foundation offtake agreements with LG, Tesla and Ford and the establishment of a $300m funding facility (provided by Ford). 

Advising on all aspects of the development of its copper gold mine in the Star Mountains of Papua New Guinea’s Western Province.

Advising on its;

• entry into a risk sharing arrangement under the Australian Government's $2 billion Critical Minerals Facility, administered by Export Finance Australia; and
• Sierra Rutile project in Sierra Leone and Cataby and Eneabba mineral sands and rare earths projects in Western Australia, including offtake and logistics, and mineral sands and rare earths interests in Kazakhstan.

Advising on its US$200 million acquisition of a group of royalties held by AuRico Metals from Centerra Gold, its royalty financing of the Dargues and Henty Gold Projects and its acquisition of a US$550 million metal stream from China Molybdenum to receive gold and silver from the Northparkes mine in New South Wales.

Advising on a number of capital raisings and other transactions, including rights issues and private placements for an amount in excess of $200 million, its private placement with IGO Limited, the proposed acquisition of the Goro Nickel Project, funding of the Century Zinc Mine, and its option agreement to acquire the historic Mount Lyell copper mine in Tasmania from Vedanta, including associated royalty and offtake arrangements.

Advising on the acquisition of Peak Mines from New Gold Inc. and its acquisition of the Dargues Gold Mine from Diversified Minerals.

Advising across all aspects of its proposed Finniss Lithium Project and associated development, including procurement, financing strategy and documentation, various offtake arrangements including with Tesla, its binding offtake agreement $34 million investment with Ganfeng, and multi-faceted A$140 million capital raise.

Advising in relation to the Olive Downs Project across multiple work streams, including major project approvals (including mining lease and environmental authority approvals), environmental and planning issues, water approvals, landholder compensation negotiations and restricted land issues, and third-party challenges to the grant of approvals.