Visit our CHQA News Hub to stay up-to-date with the latest in corporate governance and law.
Our construction team has advised on energy and resources projects including mine developments and operations, and water and energy infrastructure. Our construction lawyers can assist with: procurement strategies; tender preparation and negotiation; contract developments and negotiations; consortium and joint venture arrangements; maritime and subsea; outsourcing; mine construction, development and expansion; processing facilities and mining equipment procurement.
Over the past three years we have assisted clients in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Africa to implement more than 70 engineer-procure-construct (EPC) and engineer-procure-construction-management (EPCM) contracts and 50 operations and maintenance agreements for mining operations.
Complementing our extensive mining expertise is our skill in the energy sector. We advise clients on the development, construction and ongoing operation and maintenance of power stations; electricity and gas infrastructure including pipelines and powerlines; and water infrastructure including pipelines, dams, treatment plants and sewerage works.
Advised on the expansion of Anglo American's Dawson and Lake Lindsay projects involved capital expenditure in excess of $1b and required a contracting strategy that would ensure the procurement of coal preparation plants, long conveyors, crushing plants, and associated building and civil infrastructure. We helped Anglo establish several alliances, several EPCM contracts and a multitude of equipment and services procurement contracts.
Acted for Golding Abigroup Joint Venture on the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal. The Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal is a key part of the development of the existing Port of Gladstone. Expected to cost over A$2.5 billion. The new facility provides the additional Gladstone export capacity needed to meet the expansion of the Surat Basin, and growth of mining in central Queensland, which is all focused on the coal demand worldwide. The Abigoup Golding Joint venture was contracted to undertake most of the bulk earthworks and civil works including the coal reclaim tunnels under a contract with final value of approximately A$400 million. We advised the Abigroup Golding JV in relation to various contract dispute issues which arose between the joint venture and the WICET SPV, a consortium of coal mining companies operating in Queensland. During the course of this project, the Principal had issued a number of variations in respect to the reclaim tunnel works. As a consequence, Abigroup Golding JV incurred additional costs in performing the works and suffered delays.
Advised Energex on the auditing, development and integration of procurement policies, processes and systems. This included developing the tender conditions (standard and special) and tender documents, discussing the process and outcomes with tenderers, advising on associated tender issues, providing advice to the ENERGEX board, and daily matters such as developing tender and purchasing systems.
Assisted Peabody Energy Australia with development of a suite of procurement contracts (including construction contracts) for use across multiple mine sites in Queensland and New South Wales. We currently assisting Peabody in the negotiation of deals based on those templates, with those deals ranging in complexity and value from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.