38 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
MAY 2018
FEATURE
WITH CANADA RECOGNIZED
as a world leader in mining, oil and
gas, nuclear and infrastructure projects, Canadian lawyers get calls not
only from Canadian clients doing mega projects abroad, but also from for-
eign enterprises that want to draw on their experience.
at's both good and stressful. Domestic mandates on mega-global proj-
ects are complex enough. But when lawyers follow their clients halfway
around the world to look out for their interests in volatile emerging mar-
kets (or even more stable jurisdictions where things are done differently), it
layers on additional challenges. And some are minefields.
You can plan a project and asses the risks pro-actively and thoroughly,
but you can't always catch everything, especially when the client is working
in a politically volatile jurisdiction, as many mining companies do. It's the
kind of thing that keeps John Turner, leader of the Global Mining Group
at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, up at night.
Worst-case scenario? "ere's always the risk your client's going to lose
the project entirely," he says. "Once you're in the process of building a mine
you can't pick it up and move it if you have a dispute with the government,
and it's always possible you can have it confiscated."
Turner has been through it. He was acting for Vancouver-based First
Quantum Minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011 when
the government expropriated and nationalized First Quantum's largest op-
erating copper mine in the country, accusing the company of contract vio-
lations. e violation? "e date on a licence was one day off," Turner says.
e confiscated mine was sold to a third party, identified in the Brit-
ish media as a shell company controlled by an Israeli mining entrepre-
neur with ties to Congolese President Joseph Kabila. e mine was fairly PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
WHERE
THE MINES
ARE
Canadian law firms go where the work takes
them on mega projects
BY SANDRA RUBIN
