Swiss mining giant Xstrata is considering legal action after the Corruption and Crime Commission inquiry revealed it lost a $20 million law suit following a corrupted WA parliamentary inquiry into the closure of its Windimurra vanadium mine.
The CCC this week revealed former resources minister John Bowler leaked a confidential parliamentary committee report to lobbyist Julian Grill, then made changes to it based on feedback from Mr Grill's client, Precious Metals Australia.
The CCC said this report was instrumental in PMA winning a $20 million lawsuit against Xstrata.
Xstrata communications manager James Rickards said the company was considering "all options" following the CCC investigation.
He did not say if possible legal targets included Mr Grill and his business partner, disgraced former premier Brian Burke, Mr Bowler, the Western Australian government or PMA, whose chief executive is Roderick Smith.
"We are considering all options, Xstrata has paid close attention to the revelations of the CCC in Western Australia," Mr Rickards said.
He said it was now clear the official inquiry into the closure of the Windimurra vanadium mine was "corrupted".
"Therefore the committee's final report is discredited and we are considering all options available to us at this time."
The CCC examined this week Mr Bowler's role in 2004 as a member of a parliamentary committee which conducted an investigation into the closure of the Windimurra vanadium mine.
Xstrata closed the under-performing mine, 600km north-east of Perth, soon after buying it from PMA.
PMA, which was receiving royalties from the mine, claimed the closure was unnecessary and began a law suit against Xstrata in the NSW Supreme Court. PMA employed Mr Burke and Mr Grill to assist in the dispute.
The CCC said Mr Bowler, then a backbencher, initiated a committee investigation into the closure of the mine at the urging of Mr Grill.
Months later, Mr Bowler leaked to Mr Grill the committee's draft report just 38 minutes after he received it, despite being instructed not to, the CCC inquiry was told.
After Mr Grill received feedback from PMA, a significant number of the suggestions made by PMA ended up in the final report, tabled in November 2004. In some cases, whole slabs of text ended up in the report verbatim.
Mr Bowler was sacked from cabinet this week and told to leave the ALP.
He was the third WA Labor minister sacked over improper dealings with Mr Grill and Mr Burke, as revealed in a series of CCC public hearings.
