Cazaly Resources treated fairly in Pilbara tenement: lawyers
Wednesday March 21, 2007, 12:00 am
Lawyers for the Western Australian Government have rejected a suggestion in the Court of Appeal that junior explorer Cazaly Resources was treated unfairly during a dispute over a lucrative iron ore tenement in the Pilbara.
Cazaly pegged the Shovelanna deposit in 2005 when long-time owner Rio Tinto inadvertently let its lease expire.
Cazaly is challenging a decision by the former resources minister, John Bowler, to hand back the tenement to Rio Tinto.
Lawyers for Cazaly have argued Mr Bowler relied on information about the state's iron ore policy that had been misquoted.
However Government lawyers have told the court that in itself does not question the validity of Mr Bowler's decision.
They have also argued that returning the tenement to Rio Tinto was in the public interest because there could have been a detrimental impact on investment in Western Australia if companies thought they could lose a tenement, despite taking reasonable steps to keep it.
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