Foreign Mining Investment: Leveraging Protections Against Government Actions | 20 March 2025

AAMEG, Steptoe and Burford are hosting a dinner and discussion on Thursday, March 20 in Perth, to exchange ideas within the mining industry as to how mining companies can best protect themselves against, and respond to, adverse government action, whether that be outright expropriation, detention of personnel or changes in the regulatory and tax environment, all of which damage mining investments. One mechanism available to handle such matters (we will also discuss others) is to bring litigation against the government; we will outline how such action can be funded by third party funders thereby freeing up capital. The discussion is intended to be informal and therefore subject to the Chatham House Rule in order that there can be a free flow of ideas without public attribution of the discussion to any of the attendees.

Steptoe is an international law firm with offices in the UK, Europe, the United States and Asia. Since the 1980s, starting with the expropriations in Iran, Steptoe has been assisting clients in preparing for possible adverse government action and recovering losses caused by such action.  Steptoe has acted against numerous governments including those of The Gambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Jordan, Bosnia, Montenegro, Russia, Columbia, Cuba, Venezuela and Canada, to name a few. Steptoe’s work includes negotiating solutions with governments, acting as legal counsel in courts and tribunals and, when needed, seizing the assets of governments in order to enforce the judgments we have obtained for clients.

Burford Capital is the leading provider of third party disputes financing globally. Burford is dual-listed in New York and London with offices and capabilities around the world. Burford currently has significant investments with Australian mining clients and their disputes in Africa and globally.

BY INVITATION ONLY