Under-fire Mineral Resources facing cruelty claims over cattle deaths

Mineral Resources is facing a major animal cruelty investigation as pressure mounts on managing director Chris Ellison and the rest of the company’s board over a tax evasion scandal.

Mineral Resources faces an investigation over allegations cattle that became stuck in its earthworks had to euthanised, and that others were cut off from water.

Mineral Resources is facing a major animal cruelty investigation as pressure mounts on managing director Chris Ellison and the rest of the company’s board over a tax evasion scandal.

The MinRes share price continued to spiral downwards on ­Friday, with AustralianSuper walking away as a major shareholder.

An ASX filing indicates AustralianSuper sold about $50m worth of MinRes stock on Monday, the day after Mr Ellison admitted he had cheated on tax.

The company is now embroiled in multiple investigations, with doubts about the future of Mr Ellison and other board members.

The RSPCA confirmed on Friday that an animal cruelty complaint had been referred to West Australian government authorities for investigation because it was a large-scale animal welfare case.

The Department of Primary Industries and the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety have launched separate investigations.

There are allegations that hundreds of cattle may have been cut off from water by a haul road that underpins MinRes’s $3bn Onslow Iron project, and that other cattle became trapped in earthworks left behind by MinRes on Red Hill Station in the Pilbara and had to be destroyed.

Temperatures in the area hit 40C this week, raising concerns about whether livestock on Red Hill could access water as MinRes completes fencing of the haul road.

The animal welfare investigation comes a month after MinRes completed the sale of a 49 per cent stake in a haul road that passes through the cattle stations to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for $1.3bn.

Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison.

MinRes built the 150km private road to connect stranded iron ore deposits to a trans-shipping export berth at Onslow. The road passes through Red Hill Station for almost 40km and also passes through Peedamulla Station.

The embattled company was supposed to build underpasses and at least one bridge over the haul road to allow livestock movement, but it unclear if the work has been completed even though what MinRes calls jumbo road trains capable of carrying up to 330 tonnes of iron are now travelling back and forth from mine to port.

The Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety said a cattle station had raised animal welfare about the construction of fencing along a mining haul road. “DEMIRS is investigating the concerns and is communicating with the pastoralist, the mining company and other relevant government agencies,” a spokesman said.

The Department of Primary Industries said it was “making inquiries in relation to a Pilbara animal welfare complaint made via the RSPCA”.

The RSPCA said it had referred the cruelty complaint under a longstanding agreement whereby the department “investigates large-scale animal welfare cases”.

MinRes is already locked in a bitter legal dispute with the Corker family, which owns Red Hill Station and objected to construction the haul road. The Corker family could not be contacted for comment on Friday.

MinRes said it had immediately responded to any reports of animal welfare concerns during construction of the Onslow Iron project. A spokesman said three cattle had been euthanised by the pastoralist earlier this year and that it had been liaising with Red Hill’s owners on the design and construction of the haul road for two years.

“Construction of the haul road is now nearing completion, including the installation of fencing to prevent cattle from accessing the road corridor,” he said.

Mineral Resources faces an investigation over allegations cattle became stuck in its earthworks has had to euthanised, and that others were cut off from water. Picture: Supplied

The corporate watchdog confirmed this week that it was making preliminary inquiries into MinRes and a tax evasion scheme involving Mr Ellison.

The MinRes board has hired a law firm to conduct an investigation it says is well advanced.

In a statement last Sunday, Mr Ellison admitted he was a tax cheat who failed to make proper disclosures around a series of companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, and apologised for what he called “a serious lapse in judgment”.

Mr Ellison made admissions to the tax office about failures to report revenue transferred from businesses in Australia to offshore companies in the 2000s.

His future could hinge on whether investigations find the tax evasion scheme continued once the company listed on the ASX in 2006. Former and existing board members are also under scrutiny over what they knew and why shareholders were not told about the tax scandal before it was revealed in the media.

MinRes has been holding crisis meetings with investors and other stakeholder since last weekend.

AustralianSuper, the nation’s biggest pension fund, sold more than 1.1 million shares on Monday, just weeks after Australian Super became a substantial holder with a 5.11 per cent stake.

The share price fell another 5 per cent on Friday. More than $2.2bn has been stripped from the value of the stock since Monday.

Originally published as Under-fire Mineral Resources facing cruelty claims over cattle deaths