The Aus­tralian resource indus­try amounts to an esti­mat­ed 75% of the country’s exports, con­tributes sig­nif­i­cant­ly to Australia’s work­force and is a lead­ing influ­ence on Australia’s stan­dard of liv­ing, ris­ing incomes and flour­ish­ing economy.

We have deep indus­try expe­ri­ence which allows us to sup­port clients across the whole life-cycle of a min­ing oper­a­tion. Our team can advise you on any aspect of your project from explo­ration and approvals to social licence issues, M&A, financ­ing, mine devel­op­ment and con­struc­tion, process plants, infra­struc­ture, ship­ping, mar­ket­ing, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty improve­ments and mine care and main­te­nance or closure. 

We know the com­mer­cial pri­or­i­ties in min­ing indus­try invest­ment, eco­nom­ic and tight project time­lines require strate­gic insight. Help­ing you to plan for the next stage of the devel­op­ment in a com­plex reg­u­la­to­ry and busi­ness envi­ron­ment is crit­i­cal. Under­stand­ing the con­text in which our clients oper­ate enables us to pro­vide advice at the strate­gic and oper­a­tional levels.

NSW has many projects in the pipeline that, once under­way, will sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost the state’s eco­nom­ic and employ­ment per­for­mance. In par­tic­u­lar, NSW is rich in min­er­als such as coal, gold, cop­per, sil­ver, lead, zinc, cobalt and lithi­um. Major coal deposits are found across the whole Syd­ney-Gunnedah Basin. While the Cow­al open pit gold mine in the Cen­tral West­ern Plains region is the biggest mine in NSW.

Our full project life cycle expe­ri­ence includes:

  • Plan­ning approvals
  • Financ­ing
  • Green­field & brown­field projects
  • Com­mu­ni­ty social licenses
  • Site recla­ma­tion
  • Waste reg­u­la­tions
  • Cli­mate change and ESG 

Use­ful links:

No mat­ter how rou­tine or com­plex the busi­ness issues you face, Mer­i­tas’ net­work of law firms is with you every step of the way. Mar­ket-lead­ing firms offer a full range of legal ser­vices, which enable you to do busi­ness any­where. Wise coun­sel and prac­ti­cal solu­tions are just a phone call or e‑mail away. Dis­cov­er the breadth and depth of the prac­tice and indus­try sec­tor capa­bil­i­ties avail­able to you through Meritas.

Publications

Fed­er­al Court Deci­sion Lim­its Effec­tive Use of Set-Off in Con­trac­tu­al Annu­al Salary Arrangements

The Deci­sionIn a recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion*, Jus­tice Per­ram held that while con­trac­tu­al set-off claus­es in an annu­al salary arrange­ment can…

Pro­tect­ing your tomor­row, today: The impor­tance of an endur­ing pow­er of attorney

We often talk about the impor­tance of draft­ing your estate plan­ning doc­u­ments, includ­ing how draft­ing your will can ensure your…

Using your con­struc­tion con­tract to man­age and mit­i­gate con­trac­tor insol­ven­cy risk

Intro­duc­tionThe risk of con­trac­tor insol­ven­cy mid way though a con­struc­tion project in the cur­rent mar­ket is real and real­ly expensive.This arti­cle pro­vides…

In the News

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Evan Lucas on 2GB on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion relat­ing to salary arrange­ments, set-off claus­es and award compliance

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Evan Lucas on 2GB on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the recent Fed­er­al Court…

Michael Byrnes has pub­lished an arti­cle titled Use of AI Crit­i­cised by FWC” in HR Leader on 2 Sep­tem­ber 2025.

Michael Byrnes has pub­lished an arti­cle titled ​“Use of AI Crit­i­cised by FWC” in HR Leader on 2 Sep­tem­ber 2025.To read the…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Fair Work warns lit­i­gants against using Chat­G­PT”, pub­lished in The Aus­tralian on 28 August 2025:

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Fair Work warns lit­i­gants against using Chat­G­PT”, pub­lished in The Aus­tralian on 2…