BEN MUSCAT | Executive Consultant

Ben joined the Hetherington team in 2014 and is an Executive Consultant located in our Sydney Hetherington office.

As a qualified scientist and soon to be lawyer, Ben has spent the last decade specialising in tenement management, mining law and environmental law. Working with some of the largest ASX listed and privately owned mining and exploration companies, across all jurisdictions of Australia, and internationally, including New Zealand and Canada. Ben has personally managed portfolios of over 350 tenements, and associated approvals.

Ben specialises in approvals, compliance and permitting in the resources and development sectors, with key areas of expertise being:

• Permitting and approval acquisition
• Environmental management
• Independent due diligence
• Internal and external auditing
• Compliance management
• Native title advice
• Property and land management

Ben has a proven track record and extensive experience in:

• Land, tenement, and approval management in the resources sector.
• Environmental and planning approvals including specialist and strategic advice spanning project inception, operation, and closure.
• Advice in relation to land access and compensation resolution, Native Title processes and procedures, Aboriginal and cultural heritage management, and compliance.
• Management of property and land tenure relating to resource projects including underlying rights and obligations, Crown tenures, private leases and agreements, and conflicting tenures.
• Project planning and advisory roles in the ongoing management and reduction of environmental liabilities associated with exploration and mining operations.

Key projects Ben has worked on include:

• Closure of multiple mines including historic tenure analysis, obligation review and consideration of legal obligations relating to former mining domains under historic and contemporary authorisations and relevant legislation.
• Strategic advice in relation to the closure and relinquishment of authorisations.
• Strategic advice in relation to the approvals and liabilities across historic authorisations and workings.
• Ongoing management of tenures and strategic advice in relation to environmental obligations.
• Strategic advice in relation to environmental approvals and regulatory compliance.
• Management of interactions between Government stakeholders in relation to environmental compliance and reporting.

Prior to joining Hetherington, Ben was an Environmental Scientist with Stantec, an award-winning international North American and Asia Pacific engineering and environmental services firm. In this role, Ben managed field, laboratory and desktop assessment of environmental performance and compliance with environmental approvals across the resources, energy, and development sectors. He also managed environmental data acquisition and reporting in accordance with approval conditions.