Caroona Coal Action Group Inc v Coal Mines Australia Pty Ltd & Anor. Country/Territory Australia Type of court National - higher court Date Dec 15, 2010 Source UNEP, InforMEA Court name Supreme Court of New South Wales Judge GilesHodgsonTobias. Language English Subject Mineral resources, Legal questions Keyword Mining Abstract The Land and Environment Court dismissed an appeal brought by the Caroona Coal Action Group Inc against the grant of the exploration licence to Coal Mines Australia Pty Ltd, by the Minister for Mineral Resources, finding that the licence was validly granted. Caroona Coal Action Group Inc appealed the decision of his Honour Justice Preston on two grounds. Firstly, that the Minister for Mineral Resources did not satisfy himself that special circumstances existed to justify the renewal of the licence over an area larger than half of the land area as required by s 114(6) of the Mining Act 1992; secondly, that the Minister and Coal Mines Australia were required by s 160 of the Mining Act 1992 to sign a document comprising an ‘instrument of transfer', but failed to do so. The Court of Appeal reject both grounds of appeal. With respect to the first ground, the court concluded that Preston CJ had not made an error of law in concluding that Caroona Coal Action Group had not discharged the onus of establishing on the balance of probabilities that the Minister did not form the relevant mental state of satisfaction that special circumstances existed. With respect to the second ground, the court held that the transfer of an exploration licence under Part 7 of the Mining Act 1992 does not require a “transfer document”, rather the agreement of the parties to the transfer is signified by the application made by the licence holder and the consent of the proposed transferee. Full text COU-156791.pdf Website www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au