Slater & Gordon provides legal assistance to clients whose land, business or well-being is impacted by mining activities, be it in the exploration or actual mining stages.
Our lawyers are expert at understanding the relevant laws and negotiating with mining companies so that affected parties are provided with the best protection and fully compensated according to law.
The experience of our senior lawyers in dealing with the wide-ranging legal challenges that arise as a result of a mining impact situation is unparalleled. We understand the stress that is placed on clients in this situation and we can guide them through the process with careful strategic planning and knowledgeable advice.
We "build the case" in order to protect our clients' legitimate interests and to support their compensation claims.
The case is often constructed with the aid of a team of experienced and expert property valuers, agronomists and/or engineers.
Our wide network of regional offices enables our clients to have easy access to their lawyer. We are also happy to see clients at their property or place of business.
When fighting for a community, we also have the ability to bring broad groups of clients together to share resources and intelligence, thereby reducing the cost for individuals.
1. Services
- Advice on the applicable statutory access and compensation regime
- Formulating negotiation strategies to be deployed prior to any formal access arrangement
- Negotiating with the mining company on the provision of appropriate arrangements for temporary access to land
- Retaining expert property valuers and other professionals where required
- Conducting negotiations with mining companies both as to compensation for access and impact
- Negotiating possible sale of land where client seeks to relocate
- Preparing compensation claims
- Advising on the strength and weaknesses of claims and the appropriateness of escalating disputes to Arbitration or Court hearing
- Conducting court proceedings connected with access or compensation disputes.
2. Our Leaders
3. Reputation & Results
Slater & Gordon has been engaged by individuals and businesses throughout Australia to negotiate access and compensation arrangements arising from the impact of mining on property and its owners. Our clients have been affected by some of the largest mining projects in Australia including Shenhua's massive Watermark Coal project, BHP's equally enormous Caroona Coal project, the Aston Resources Maules Creek project, the Gloucester Coal mine, Boggabri Coal's mine, Narrabri Coal Op's Narrabri North project, Whitehaven's Tarrawonga Mine, and Coalworks' major project based on the iconic "Kurrumbede" station north of Gunnedah to name a few.In addition, we have acted for landholders in very remote areas adversely affected by smaller claims such as metallurgical and opal mining activities.
In some instances, we have obtained compensation many times higher than the mining company was originally prepared to offer.
We have acted for large groups of clients affected by a single mining project. We have successfully co-ordinated the negotiation of favourable land use arrangements on behalf of client groups and maximised their combined compensation entitlements. Where necessary we have taken mining companies to Arbitration and to Courts to seek justice and fair compensation for our clients.
For those clients wishing to relocate rather than live with the impact of mining we have aggressively negotiated on their behalf to achieve the highest selling price possible and, in the nine months to September 2010, extracted more than $60 million in agreed sale prices from mining companies.