Forrest appeals uranium bid at family cattle station

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has launched a battle to stop a junior uranium player exploring on his family cattle station.

Forrest and Forrest argued Yarri’s plans would adversely affect pastoral operations.

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has launched a new bid to stop a junior uranium explorer coming onto his family cattle station in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Mr Forrest lodged an appeal in the WA Court of Appeal on Thursday, challenging a decision paving the way for Tony Sage’s Cauldron Energy to secure exploration tenements within and adjoining Mr Forrest’s Minderoo pastoral station. Mr Sage said his company, which wants the tenements to add to its Yanrey uranium project in the area, deserved a fair go by Mr Forrest, who made his fortune in the mining industry.

“We’ve already spent $13 million on our leases up at Yanrey ... and it’s a shame we have to now spend shareholders’ money on litigation, rather than doing what we want to do,” Mr Sage said.

“Given his fights with various entities all the way through — getting his leases against BHP, Rio — I would have thought he would have given a little junior a bit of a go.” Cauldron applied for the tenements around Minderoo, near Onslow, in 2012. The WA mining warden recommended the application be refused but was overruled by the state mines minister.

Mr Forrest’s private company, Forrest and Forrest Pty Ltd, lost a challenge to the minister’s decision in the Supreme Court of WA last month, with the mining magnate ordered to pay costs.

Separately in July, Forrest and Forrest lost a Court of Appeal challenge against Yarri Mining, which seeks tenements on Minderoo station for sand mining, and at the time suggested it would consider taking the matter to the High Court.

Forrest and Forrest argued Yarri’s plans would adversely affect pastoral operations, sterilise and degrade the land, and cause environmental damage, including to the Ashburton River, which flows through the station. It also argued that Yarri did not have a valid mining target or strategy. Forrest and Forrest declined to comment.

AAP