The miner’s company secretary, David Forsyth, said after hearing of Tuesday’s decision that the company did not know at this stage how the judgement would impact its business.

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“The company will have a meeting a bit later this evening and go through all the ramifications,” Forsyth said. “I’m sorry, I’m just not able to comment at this time.”

Early last month, Tigers Realm told investors that if the Federal Court didn’t find in its favour, it would need to urgently consider what steps were required to ensure compliance with the sanctions, including the possibility of ceasing operations.

Mining entrepreneur Owen Hegarty and Tony Manini listed Tigers Realm Coal on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2010. After listing, its shares traded at 54¢. Now, it has a market capitalisation of $65.3 million and its shares fetch less than 1¢ a share at around 0.05¢ each.

The founder of market darling Sirtex Medical, Bruce Gray, is a controlling shareholder in the company with a 59.89 per cent interest. Russian private equity firm Baring Vostok Mining Holding has a large 18.2 per cent stake, and Namarong Investments, which lists logistics billionaire Paul Little and his wife University of Melbourne chancellor Jane Hansen as directors, owns 5.63 per cent.

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Australia’s tough sanctions regime has already snared Russian aluminium producer Rusal, a minority owner in a Queensland alumina refinery with mining giant Rio Tinto. Earlier this year, Rusal lost a lawsuit against Rio after the miner froze supply of bauxite and alumina to the Russian company to comply with Australia’s sanctions regime.

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