Kingstream Steel creditors have been thrown a final lifeline in their bid for a multi-million dollar payout from Saint Barbara Mines, after litigation funder IMF Australia today agreed to fund an appeal against an adverse Supreme Court ruling last month.
In June, WA Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Martin dismissed a $350 million damages claim against St Barbara by the Kingstream Steel Creditors Trust for failing to honour a 1999 option agreement to transfer a handful of Mid-West mining tenements to the steel hopeful.
The tenements were unintentionally relinquished by St Barbara in 2001, rather than transferred to Kingstream under the option deal. The tenements were picked up by a third party and were later included in an exploration licence that was sold for $17 million in 2004. The tenements now form part of the $1 billion Jack Hills iron ore project being developed by Murchison Metals and Mitsubishi.
Kingstream administrator Bryan Hughes, who launched the action on behalf of the trust, had hoped to at least recover the $7 million to $8 million still owed to Kingstream creditors but was seeking total damages of up to $350 million for the lost opportunity resulting from the failure to transfer the tenements.
Prior to the trial, the administrator had valued the tenements at between $13 million and $980 million.
However, Justice Martin found there was "no proper conceptual basis" to award any damages to Kingstream and that it had failed to establish liability against St Barbara on any of its causes of action.
The original court action was also funded by IMF.
