[miningmx.com] – GOLD Fields, under investigation by the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for governance abuses, is set to tangle with the authorities again after Australia’s Ngadju people said the firm had properties belonging to them.
The R30bn gold group said today its subsidiary, St Ives Gold Mining Company which operates in Western Australia, had been named in proceedings brought by the Ngadju in relation to a land claim over some 250 mining tenements.
The Ngadju say they were excluded from the right to negotiation over 210 of those tenements in terms of the Native Title Act when the properties were transferred from Western Mining to St Ives in 2011.
The first respondent in the matter, which is set down for a hearing in March, is the State of Western Australia. Gold Fields’s St Ives has been named as a second respondent to answer specific items in the proceedings. A decision is not expected for between six to 12 months, Gold Fields said. Any party can appeal the decision.
Gold Fields said it was possible that the provincial government, the Ngadju and St Ives could enter into a land use agreement.
“Gold Fields is strongly of the view that the assertions made by the Ngadju People are unfounded and without merit. It has engaged Senior Counsel and is vigorously defending
its position in these proceedings,” the company said in an announcement.
The risks are high, however, as a successful outcome for the Ngadju would allow them to serve an injunction prohibiting mining in the area.
