The High Court has this morning rejected an application for special leave to appeal in the long-running claim by Western Areas Exploration (WAE) against its former directors Terry Streeter and David Cooper.
The ruling has cleared the pair of claims that they had breached fiduciary duties when they allegedly drove a nickel investment opportunity into the arms of Western Areas NL, an unrelated party, by providing capital in support of the Western Areas NL float.
In 2009 the Supreme Court found against Messrs Streeter and Cooper, awarding $60 million in compensation to WAE. This decision was overturned in January this year by the WA Court of Appeal.
The WA Court of Appeal said that WAE had waited too long before bringing the claim against the pair.
The High Court has now denied WAE permission to appeal the WA Court of Appeal’s decision. Mr Streeter says that this vindicates his and Cooper’s initial challenge against the highly opportunistic action.
“I am pleased that WAE’s claim has finally been brought to an end,” Mr Streeter said.
“The case has consumed a considerable amount of time and resources, but I believe it has been important to defend my reputation against what I always regarded as a highly opportunistic and vexatious action.
“The resources industry is a high risk and high cost business. It is disappointing when certain parties try to succeed on someone else’s effort over time as they see this as an easy way to gain.”
Senior counsel Chris Zelestis and solicitors from Perth-based boutique legal firm Maxim Litigation Consultants were today thanked by Mr Streeter for the significant work undertaken on behalf of Mr Cooper and himself.
Western Areas NL is now chaired by Mr Streeter, who has extensive experience in the nickel industry since the nickel boom in 1969. Mr Streeter has previously been a non-executive director with Jubilee Mines and is also chairman of Fox Resources, which produces nickel as well as copper and zinc.
The Flying Fox mine at Western Areas’ Forrestania nickel project is regarded as one of the highest grade nickel mines globally, and Australia’s lowest cost underground nickel mine.
