Telstar Resources Limited v Noranda Australia Limited

Telstar Resources Limited sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The dispute concerned an application for prospecting licences. The Full Court had discharged an order nisi and a writ of certiorari that had required the mining warden to show cause why he should not deal with Telstar's application according to law.

The central legal issue before the High Court was the interpretation of section 105 of the Western Australian Mining Act and regulation 59 of the associated regulations, which prescribe the manner in which land must be marked out for a mining tenement. Specifically, the court was required to determine whether an applicant for a prospecting licence was obligated to excavate the trenches required by regulation 59, or if it was sufficient to simply determine the location of the pegs. This question arose because Telstar had marked out contiguous areas for its prospecting licences, using existing trenches and not duplicating marking out along common boundaries.

The High Court considered the arguments that section 105 and regulation 59 imposed an obligation on the applicant to fix pegs but not necessarily to excavate the trenches. However, this submission had not been accepted by the warden or by Mr Justice Wallace in the Supreme Court. While Justices Brinsden and Pidgeon in the Full Court had held to a limited extent that the applicant was not required to cut the trenches, the overall decision of the Full Court was to discharge the order nisi. The application for special leave was heard by Deane J.