A number of Australian law firms are seeing increased activity related to South America as miners look for new untouched resources.

Norton Rose managing partner Wayne Spanner told ALB activity in the South American market by both Canadian and Australian mining and resource companies was a clear business case for the recent merger between Norton Rose and Canadian firm Macleod Dixon. “Energy and resource companies operate around the world and they go to where the resources are, which is why it’s important to have people on the ground in South America, which is a growth area for commodities,” said Spanner.

The Norton Rose merger not only adds new capability in South America, through offices in Caracas (Venezuela) and Bogotá (Colombia), it also adds capability in Kazakhstan and strengthens numbers on the ground in Russia and Canada. “You can’t be best of class in Australia for energy and resources if you are not best of class across the globe; that’s why it is important to have capacity in those areas of the world,” said Spanner. “That is where we expect to find our clients and where we know our clients will have a significant business opportunity.”

Norton Rose isn’t the only firm seeing movement in Latin America. Mallesons Stephen Jaques was the lead advisor on the $3.5 billion takeover of Andean Resources by Gold Corp in late 2010. The former was an Australian-based junior miner responsible for the Cerro Negro gold project in Argentina, while Gold Corp is a Canadian miner with extensive operations in the South Americas. “We are seeing a lot of the Perth-based junior miners and explorers becoming very active in South America. It has really come onto the scene in the last five years,” said Mallesons partner Nigel Hunt.

South America is touted to have huge deposits of untouched minerals, and while gold in particular is hot amongst Australian junior miners, other minerals such as copper and nickel are also growing in prominence as new regions open up. “There is a strong Canadian community already in South America and a very similar mining community in Australia is looking in that direction,” added Hunt.

In recent times Middletons has also been involved in a number of deals in the region. Special counsel Clive Cachia acted for an Australian investment house acquiring three mining projects in Argentina last year and is currently working on a deal involving a copper and gold producer in Chile which is set to be listed on the ASX. “Over the last year we are seeing an increasing role in Australian companies doing business in places like Argentina and Chile and we are helping them to complete transactions related to those markets,” he said.