Northern Star Resources will have to submit two years’ worth of related documents as part of an ongoing legal dispute over its Kanowna Belle mine asset.
Kanowna Mines, a subsidiary of Northern Star, sued Grange Resources and Vox Royalty Australia in the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
The company alleged Grange breached a deed about royalty rights from Red Hill, when the latter assigned its royalty to Vox.
The WA Supreme Court recently ordered Kanowna Mines to submit documents from July 2021 to end of July 2023.
However, not all of the documents Grange sought from Kanowna were ordered to be submitted.
WA Supreme Court judge Jenni Hill found both Kanowna Mines and Grange had partial success over their applications.
Grange sought all documents created between January 1, 2021 and December 30, 2023, that reported on activities at the Red Hill deposit in the Kanowna Belle mine area.
According to Justice Hill’s recent judgment, Grange also sought all annual mineral exploration reports from 2021 to 2024, and documents involving drilling results and mineral resource estimate for Red Hill in 2021 to mid-2023.
Grange alleged the documents sought were relevant to its claim of loss and damage, in the company’s counterclaim against Kanowna Mines.
The company claimed Kanowna never provided Grange with the relevant quarterly reports, the judgment shows.
“It says these reports were required to be sufficiently detailed so as to enable Grange to enforce and enjoy the benefit of its rights, including to enable Grange to inform itself as to the value of its rights in respect of the royalty payable in respect of M27/25 [Red Hill],” Justice Hill said in her judgment.
“Grange says it suffered loss and damage from Kanowna's breach.
“Two losses are pleaded: first, the loss of the value of the royalty; and second, the accrual of any liability it has to Kanowna arising from any breach by Grange of the royalty deed.”
Kanowna admitted it did not provide quarterly reports to Grange in the relevant period but claimed the latter already has the necessary information about the exploration activity at the Red Hill deposit from ASX announcements published in late 2022 to May 2023.
The judgment said Kanowna denied the categories of documents Grange sought were necessary to the legal proceedings.
Kanowna also claimed Grange chose not to receive the reports because it never asserted its legal right to obtain the documents.
Justice Hill did not accept Kanowna’s argument.
“The ASX announcements referred to in Grange's counterclaim do not descend to a level of detail that would enable Grange to ascertain whether any of the activities referred to in these announcements occurred on M27/57,” she said in her judgment.
“Given this, I consider it is appropriate to order some additional discovery to be given by Kanowna.”
Justice Hill ordered Kanowna to provide documents from one of the categories, but not all of the reports sought by Grange.
“It is only documents addressing events occurring with this date range that are discoverable,” she said in her judgment.
“While I accept that documents addressing these events may have been created after this date, I do not consider this period should be extended by six months.
“In my view, the date range of the documents sought by Grange extends beyond the issues in dispute.”
In the writ lodged in the Supreme Court, Kanowna Mines alleged Grange failed to offer to assign the royalty to Kanowna when it entered a deal with Vox for $8 million cash consideration in 2023.
