Former Hellyer mine executives Brad Monks and Rodger Johnston were ordered to repay a combined $8.5 million plus interest after a court found funds had been misappropriated, and their personal estates were sequestered. The ruling cited $2.9 million moved from a Pieman trust account to entities linked to Monks—Corporate Hustle and Wilson Street Capital—and allegations that a further $2.4 million was taken via related-party payments and unauthorised credit card spending, according to Hellyer Gold Mines. The court’s January 2025 judgment criticised the defendants’ conduct as “bordering on bizarre” and apparently aimed at “deliberately delaying the proceedings.”

Australia is stepping up efforts to build domestic rare earths processing capacity, with Iluka Resources’ A$1.8 billion Eneabba refinery in Western Australia’s Midwest about 60% complete. The project has backing including a A$1.65 billion federal government loan and a A$220 million long-term offtake arrangement. Attention has also turned to Lynas Rare Earths’ A$800 million refinery in Kalgoorlie. The developments underline Australia’s strategy to navigate intensifying global competition over rare earths and strengthen supply chain security.

Transgrid has completed its $3.6 billion, 700-kilometre Project EnergyConnect high-voltage transmission line linking southern NSW with the South Australian and Victorian electricity grids. The company has also begun a South West Renewable Energy Zone upgrade, lifting the Dinawan substation and the line to Wagga Wagga from 330 to 500 kilovolts. The NSW government is contributing A$225 million toward the work to boost renewable generation grid connections in the region.

Port unions in Western Australia’s Pilbara plan to launch a 24-hour strike against BHP on August 9, following an eight-hour stoppage on July 16. The action would halt iron ore shiploading at Port Hedland, where iron ore worth tens of millions of dollars is exported each week. A one-day shutdown could cost BHP $120 million in lost revenue and the WA government $6.85 million in royalty payments.

The Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation (YNAC), representing traditional owners in Western Australia’s Pilbara, has voted to appeal a Federal Court ruling ordering Fortescue to pay A$150.3 million for cultural loss. The court found Fortescue liable after it built four iron ore projects without an agreement with YNAC. YNAC had originally sought A$1.8 billion, citing industry royalty rates. Fortescue’s Solomon Hub has generated an estimated $80 billion in revenue since starting production in 2013.

Tasmania is facing renewed concern that the closure of major industrial users could push up household power bills, with Bell Bay Aluminium seen as a key risk. Bell Bay Aluminium is estimated to pay A$25 million a year in network charges and about A$100 million in energy costs. If the smelter shut, average bills could rise by 2% and TasNetworks could trigger an additional A$120 million investment in the George Town substation. The company is an aluminium smelter, and any shutdown would directly reshape local supply capacity and industrial electricity demand.

Australia’s communications regulator, ACMA, said it will sue Optus in the Federal Court over a nationwide network outage in September that lasted almost 14 hours. ACMA alleges Optus breached two legal obligations more than 1,000 times, with a maximum penalty of $250,000 per contravention. The outage saw 75% of Triple Zero calls fail from 605 attempts and was linked to two deaths. A review commissioned by Optus found a routine network upgrade involved multiple failures by Optus and contractor Nokia, including as many as 10 crucial mistakes.

Australia’s corporate regulator has alleged Capital Guard raised $17.4 million from about 80 investors by selling bonds that did not exist. Investigators said $9 million was transferred to crypto platforms and another $4.1 million to currency exchanges, with much of the money unaccounted for. The New South Wales Supreme Court has approved the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s application to wind up the firm after the regulator’s investigation.

Origin Energy has confirmed a data security incident in which the personal information of about 900,000 current and former customers is believed to have been accessed. The company said it became aware of a potential threat in early July and that new information on 22 July indicated a possible security incident. Origin said affected customers will be contacted and its investigation is ongoing.