THE High Court has rejected claims that the Minister for Energy and Tara Mines Ltd were responsible for the failure to bring the neighbouring Bula lead and zinc mine at Nevinstown, Co Meath, into production.

Mr Justice Lynch dismissed the action brought by Bula Ltd (in receivership) which owns the orebody and businessmen, Mr Michael Wymes, of Bective House, Navan, Co Meath, and Mr Richard Wood of Carrigrohan, Co Cork. They sued the Minister and Tara.

The judge said the case had "its origins in business dealings undertaken in the hopes of arriving at a very large crock of gold, which in the end of the day turned into a bottomless pit of debt and misery for those who most avidly sought the crock of gold".

Submissions on who should pay the legal costs were adjourned until Wednesday. It was suggested that the costs could reach £3 million.

Mr Justice Lynch said Bula's allegation was that despite a provision in Tara's lease from the Minister that Tara should co operate with Bula, Tara and its personnel nevertheless wrongfully conspired and sought to inflict economic loss and damage to Bula to such an extent as to ruin Bula.

Bula also claimed the Minister and his representative on the Bula board, Mr Michael O'Connell, failed to prevent Tara and its personnel from acting as alleged as assisted Tara in so acting. The court rejected those claims.

In a 188 page judgment, the judge said the Navan zinc and lead ore body was discovered following exploration by Tara in 1970. A farmer, Mr Patrick, Wright owned the Nevinstown lands and minerals underneath. The State owned the minerals at Whistlemount.

Mr Justice Lynch said an attempt by the Minister for Energy to buy compulsorily the Nevinstown minerals was quashed by the High Court and the Supreme Court. In 1974, the Minister agreed to acquire 49 per cent of the share equity of Bula for £9.54 million but had only 28 per cent voting rights.

The judge said that Mr Wymes had been appointed managing director of Bula shortly after its incorporation and exercised a dominant influence over its affairs.

Mr Justice Lynch spoke of "attitudes of mutual distrust and antagonism" on the part of Tara towards Bula and on the part of Bula (and especially Mr Wymes) towards Tara.

Mr Wymes had heard of negotiations by Tara to buy Mr Wright's lands and had advised Mr Wright to demand a continuing interest in any future mine that Tara might develop.

During the same month, Mr Wright with the encouragement of Mr Wymes was having secret negotiations with Mr Wymes and the two Roches.

On March 18th, 1971, a contract for sale by Mr Wright to Mr Roche senior was executed, said the judge, behind the back of and unknown to Tara.

"The acquisition of Patrick Wright's lands of Nevinstown on behalf of Bula reflected no honour on the part of any of the principals involved in it," the judge said. "Tara were quite entitled to regard themselves as having been dishonourably gazumped and claim jumped and cheated of the very substantial investment in drilling which they had incurred."

Outlining the reasons for the failure of the Bula independent mine project, Mr Justice Lynch said the £9.54 million paid by the Minister for a share in the mine had not been paid to Bula to finance its activities but to the shareholders.

The effect had been that the Minister did not really invest in the Bula mine project at all. He invested in the pockets of the private shareholders. Every item old expenditure incurred by Bula had to be paid for by borrowing from a consortium of banks.

The judge said that except for the actual lands and minerals of Nevinstown, the enterprise was 100 per cent dependent on loan finance. Enterprises that could succeed on that basis were few and far between.

Nevertheless, it might just have succeeded if the task had been undertaken as one of the utmost urgency to get the mine constructed and into production.

A third cause for the Bula failure was the manner in which the affairs of Bula were conducted by its personnel and especially Mr Wymes, who persisted in looking for a largely open pit mine followed by underground mining.

What was more regrettable about this persistence was that Mr Wymes in 1978/79 received a report which indicated that a wholly underground mine might be as profitable or more profitable than the open pit followed by the underground mine.

In the course of the sorry saga of Bula, said the judge, Mr Wymes alienated those with whom he should have sought to get on well. He misled them, he strung them along, and he met any resistance with threats of litigation.

Mr Wymes had indulged in and was a master of interminable nit picking legalistic and antagonistic correspondence with all and sundry and especially with the Minister and his Department with whom he should have been seeking good relations.

It was very strange that there appeared to have been a complete failure on the part of Bula personnel and especially Mr Wymes to appreciate the cost of time and borrowed money. By 1984, bank interest was running in excess of £5,000 a day.

Mr Justice Lynch said the whole question of boundary mining was a major aspect of Bula's claim. It was alleged Tara activities had resulted in large quantities of ore on Bula's side being "frozen" and incapable of extraction. After many weeks of the hearing the claim was withdrawn.

Other groundless allegations made by Mr Wymes imputed bribery and corruption by Tara of leading politicians, including Taoisigh, in respect of contributions by Tara to the funds of respective political parties.

These temptations were untrue the contributions were the usual and normal financial assistance to political parties and were not for the purpose or in expectation of any favours. "The allegations were made by Mr Wymes with an air of sanctimonious self righteousness which acquired an odour of hypocrisy when it transpired that he, on behalf of Bula, had contributed £25,000 to the funds of a political party," said the judge.

He referred to a proposal by Tara in 1984 to acquire the Minister and Bula's share holding which included indemnification to the Bula personnel from liabilities to Bula's bankers as guarantors of Bula's debts.

Mr Wymes assumed points being raised by Tara were in order to delay completion of a deal and thereby damage Bula and its personnel. Mr Justice Lynch said he was satisfied there was no validity in any of these suspicions.

Tara produced an improved proposal and a draft contract was presented but Mr Wymes said it was unacceptable. Instead of paying attention to what was being offered to them the Bula personnel (excluding Mr Roche senior) put forward an eight point demand.

This demand, on top of the estimated £25 million offer by Tara, would have meant an additional cost of £10 to £15 million. It was rejected by Tara. The outlandish demand by Bula personnel amounted to a refusal of the proposals. Hence those proposals were withdrawn and with them died the fortunes of Bula personnel.