JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold Fields on Monday moved to “vigorously” defend claims that mining tenements held by its subsidiary, St Ives Gold Mining Company, in Western Australia, were invalid under the Native Title Act of 1993.

The Ngadju People had instituted legal proceedings, to which the State of Western Australia and the mining subsidiary were respondents, in the Federal Court of Australia regarding a native title claim over a parcel of land containing a number of mining tenements held by St Ives; transferred from Western Mining Corporation (WMC) in 2001.

Gold Fields said in a statement that the Ngadju People claimed to hold native titles covering about 250 mining tenements held by St Ives, with 210 of those tenements invalid because the ‘the right to negotiate’ as specified in the Native Title Act was not upheld.

The Ngadju People asserted that this included excision of the tenements from the state agreement and transfer of the tenements from WMC to St Ives in 2001; the grant of replacement tenements to St Ives in 2004 pursuant to the Mining Act of 1978; and the renewal of certain tenements in 2007 pursuant to the state agreement.

“The Ngadju may seek remedies analogous to those available under the laws of trespass. This could include an injunction to stop unlawful interference with native title by conducting mining activities and damages. If invalidity is found, that consequence is not necessarily immutable,” Gold Fields noted.

The Mining Act provided that the Ngadju, Gold Fields and the state could enter into an indigenous land use agreement that validated any invalid leases.

“It is difficult to provide definitive guidance on the potential consequences for St Ives if the Ngadju group are successful,” Gold Fields pointed out, adding that the assertions made by the Ngadju People were “unfounded and without merit”.

The group planned to “vigorously” defend its position in the proceedings, which were set down for March 2014. A decision was not expected for another 6 to 12 months.