Deane v Burnett

Deane, a mining company, sought a determination of compensation from Burnett, the landowner, for a mining lease granted over the latter's property. The dispute was heard by the Queensland Land Court, presided over by Member R S Hallahan. The primary legal issues the Court needed to address were whether certain costs incurred by the landowner in connection with the mining lease were compensable under the Mining Act 1992. These costs included inspection and administration costs, professional fees for the preparation of the compensation claim, and potential future costs related to non-contamination declarations and compliance.

Member Hallahan considered the inspection and administration costs, which included monitoring for weeds, pests, and bio-security breaches, to be reasonable and necessary given the nature of the operations on the property. The Court found that these costs were compensable under the Act. However, regarding the professional fees for the preparation of the compensation claim, the Court referred to the decisions in Sullivan v Oil Company of Australia Ltd (No.2) and Matrix Metals Limited v The North Australian Pastoral Company Pty Ltd. The Court held that legal and professional fees incurred in the preparation of a compensation claim should not be treated differently from costs in any other form of litigation, and therefore, these fees were not compensable under the Act. For potential future costs related to non-contamination declarations and compliance, the Court found that these costs could not be quantified at the time of the determination and thus were not compensable.

The Court also considered the additional amount percentage requested by the landowner, which was proposed to be 20% to reflect the combined impacts of mine-related approvals. The Court, however, determined that an additional amount of 10% was warranted given the duration, area, and mining activities proposed for the lease.

ORDERS:
1. Compensation for the mining lease ML 70522 is determined to be $2,420 per annum.
2. The applicant is to pay compensation to the respondent within three months of the mining lease's issue notification by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines and annually thereafter on the anniversary of the mining lease issue.