About Damien
Damien is a corporate and commercial law expert with a focus on the mining and resources sector. He acts for public and private clients in unregulated mergers and acquisitions, joint venture arrangements, resources law, taxation, stamp duty, foreign investment regulations, and business and commercial structuring.
Damien is known for having designed and implemented many of the more sophisticated structures for asset development and ownership and infrastructure sharing within the resources industry.
He has structured, negotiated and drafted more than 30 joint venture and infrastructure sharing arrangements.
Over the years, he has advised on the structures for, and established, many joint ventures, partnerships, and corporations and his clients span the mining, base metals, energy and financial investment industries.
His tax expertise is built on extensive experience with a solid grounding in general commercial law. Damien has the skills to identify commercial and revenue issues relating to a particular client or transaction and design and implement cost effective solutions to those issues.
Damien holds dual leadership roles within the firm as one of five practice leaders and has led the Resources Group for more than 20 years.
Specialisations
Experience
Whitehaven Coal
Advised on $5.1 billion merger with Aston Resources Limited.
New Hope Group
Advised on the acquisition of Rio Tinto’s $666 million joint venture interest in the Bengalla Coal Mine and separately on the acquisition of Peabody Coal’s infrastructure and related tenements at the Burton Coal Mine.
NQ Minerals Plc (a listed UK company)
Advised on the transformational acquisition of the Hellyer Gold Mine and ancillary funding and cross-border arrangements.
Divestments by Anglo American
Advised acquirers and other counter-parties involved in Anglo America’s divestment of its Drayton, Drayton South and Callide Coal Mine.
Stanmore Coal’s transaction
Advised on the so called ‘$1 dazzler’ acquisition of the Isaac Plains Mine from Vale and Sumitomo.
Inbound investments
Advised major international companies and private equity groups on transactions involving Australian assets and projects.
Joint ventures
Negotiated joint venture and infrastructure sharing arrangements related to the resources industry including the Coppabella Moorvale, Lake Vermont, Moolarben, Narrabri and SPUR Hill joint ventures.