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African mining expert Lachlan Poustie elevated to A&O Shearman’s Mining & Metals leadership team
Lachlan Poustie, a Paris-based expert on the development and financing of highly complex mining, energy and infrastructure projects across Africa and other continents, has now joined Matthew Johnson (Perth) and Cynthia Urda Kassis (New York) as a Mining & Metals sector leader for global law firm A&O Shearman
Leading global law firm A&O Shearman has expanded its Mining & Metals leadership team by adding Paris-based partner and Africa mining expert Lachlan Poustie as a co-lead, alongside New York-based partner Cynthia Urda Kassis and Perth-based partner Matthew Johnson, who have been leading the global team since 2024.
With more than 20 years of legal experience, Lachlan acts for corporates, sponsors, export credit agencies, development finance institutions and commercial lenders on the development and financing of highly complex mining, energy, and infrastructure projects. He has advised on first-in-kind transactions across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, and has developed a particular expertise in emerging markets.
“We are excited to welcome Lachlan … to our Mining & Metals sector leadership team,” shared Kassis. “Together, with Lachlan, Matt and I will work in partnership to guide mining focused efforts across the globe, drawing upon the firm's extensive experience in supporting clients in the mining and metals industry.”
Talking with Africa Legal last year, Lachlan and his now fellow Mining & Metals sector co-lead Matthew Johnson discussed how the African mining industry faces a range of challenges, but the continent also has a real opportunity to harness technology and financing support for renewable energy and green projects and teach the rest of the world how to build sustainable mines from the ground up.
A regular attendee and speaker at Mining Indaba and the GC Forum Extractives in Cape Town - an event he calls “a great occasion” to exchange ideas, discuss challenges, and share solutions - earlier this year Lachlan chaired an expert panel discussing “The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals: Africa at a Crossroads", with Dr Gracelin Baskaran of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Christopher Vandome of Chatham House Global Critical Minerals Initiative, Kate Southwell of Anglo American, and Ivan Grbešić of Stikeman Elliott.
A graduate of the University of Monash in Australia, Lachlan is a bilingual lawyer admitted to the bar in Victoria (Australia), Paris, and England & Wales. He was named a Next Generation Partner for the EMEA region by Legal 500 in 2023, and an Up and Coming Lawyer for Africa-wide Project Finance by Chambers Global in 2024.
Lachlan has advised various stakeholders on several significant African mining and infrastructure projects, including a multi-billion-dollar integrated iron ore project in Mauritania, financing for a bauxite mining and infrastructure project in Guinea, mining activities in Guinea, refurbishment of Africa’s only nuclear power station in South Africa, the sale of a stake in a gas-to-power plant in Mozambique, mezzanine lending for the first fully-financed private sector power plant in Nigeria, lending for the Gulf power project in Kenya, solar power plants in Morocco, cargo facilities in Ethiopia, airport projects in Tunisia, and refurbishment of the 680 km “transgabonnais” railway line in Gabon used by multiple mining companies.