Mark Beyer

Western Australia is one of the world’s great mining provinces but where are the great Perth-based mining services companies?

The Australian mining industry has provided a strong platform for contract drilling and drilling services companies such as Ausdrill, Brandrill and Imdex, but attempts to move into the international market have met with mixed success.

Nick Archibald, the founder of pioneering Western Australian minerals software developer Fractal Graphics, is close to completing his biggest ever deal as chief executive of listed Canadian company Geoinformatics Exploration Inc.

In-house corporate lawyers are keen to explore alternatives to traditional hourly billing but struggle to gain buy-in from their external legal advisers, an industry survey has found.

The mining industry is pushing the federal government to change its migration rules and make it easier to bring geologists, metallurgists and temporary workers into the country.

The West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers produced strong profit results last year but a close analysis of their annual accounts shows that West Coast is much stronger financially than its cross-town rival.

Perth drug discovery company Phylogica has become Australia’s top biotech stock this year, with its share price up by about 250 per cent over the past five months.

The state government’s ambitious plan for the world’s largest radio telescope could complicate the development of Murchison Metal’s Jack Hills iron ore project in the Mid-West.

Native title agreements reached in Western Australia during the past year have a major focus on providing employment and business opportunities for Aboriginal people.

The federal government provides just more than $50 million each year to native title representative bodies (NTRB), yet both business and Aboriginal groups agree this is grossly inadequate.

Twenty-three Western Australian inventions, in sectors ranging from drug delivery to communications and minerals processing, will be on show at next month’s Commercialisation Expo 2006 in Melbourne.

Legal action against nickel miner Minara Resources has provided a stark reminder that negotiating a native title agreement is not the end of the matter for mining companies.

A quick statistical snapshot neatly sums up the legal difficulties associated with native title. Presently, there are 606 native title applications awaiting resolution and most have been before the Federal Court for a matter of years.

While native title is increasingly delivering on its promises for all parties, there remain those who aren’t convinced.

Australia’s biggest live sheep exporter, Emanuel Exports Pty Ltd, is planning a constitutional challenge to animal cruelty charges brought by the state government under the Animal Welfare Act.

The owner of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline has opted for a staged capacity expansion, fuelling speculation that planned expansion projects at Alcoa's Wagerup alumina refinery and BHP Billiton's Worsley Alumina refinery will be deferred.

Construction and development group GRD Ltd intends to sell down 180 million shares in its New Zealand gold mining subsidiary OceanaGold, now reducing its stake from 56.94 per cent to 6.94 per cent.

Mortgage brokers could double their share of housing loans with the biggest winners likely to be the industry’s big players such as Perth-based Australian Finance Group, a conference in Perth was told last week.

Malaysian investment fund Navis Capital Partners is looking to expand its Australian presence after entering an agreement to buy Perth-based printing franchise Worldwide Online Printing.

The top executive at BankWest parent HBOS plc has endorsed the aggressive and innovative growth strategy being pursued by the bank in Western Australia and on the east coast.

Technology Park manager Zernike Australia is planning to widen its activities, with new chief executive Arnold Stroobach looking to build stronger ties with the university sector and establish new medical centres.

Technology investor Entrepreneurs in Residence is planning a major diversification by establishing a US$20 million ($26 million) venture capital fund targeting Australian companies expanding into China.

The founding shareholders of Eneabba Gas Ltd have taken the extraordinary step of canceling 35 million shares and 26.25 million options collectively worth $12.5 million.

The state budget is projecting continued rapid growth in mining royalties and property revenue in 2006-07.

Australia’s longest civil trial is scheduled to sit for a further four months after reaching an unprecedented 400 sitting days in early May.

The effectiveness of the State Administrative Tribunal as a cost-effective judicial forum could be eroded if government agencies appealed all adverse decisions to the Supreme Court, lawyers have told WA Business News.

Former Wesfarmers executive Bob Denby and Empired co-founder Justin Miller have teamed up to commercialise a Western Australian invention that tackles the world’s most common occupational illness – hearing loss.

Japan would remain Australia’s major trading partner for another decade despite the rapid growth achieved by China, Australia’s ambassador to Japan has predicted.

The high and open-ended cost of legal services is a perennial issue for companies and individuals alike.

Newly-formed technology company Sensear Pty Ltd is the fourth spin-out to emerge from the Western Australian Telecommunications Research Institute, based in Nedlands.

The Commissioner of State Revenue has suffered two defeats in the State Administrative Tribunal this year, with taxpayers successfully challenging payroll tax and stamp duty assessments.

Law firms Clayton Utz and Blakiston & Crabb have been at the forefront of one of the major trends in the mining industry in the past two years: the move to Canada by miners looking to raise large amounts of money.