Corona was a recently formed mining company that had identified land—the Williams land—immediately to the west of property it already owned in Northern Ontario, as potentially gold-bearing. Corona interested Lac, an established and better financed mining company, in the possibility of a joint venture to develop the Williams land, and while doing so divulged to Lac significant information known only to itself. Discussions on a possible joint venture had been running for only a very few weeks, however, when Corona learnt that Lac had acquired the Williams land for itself, though Corona was fully intending to do so and had in fact already made an offer for it. Nothing had been said expressly about confidentiality during the discussions, but the trial judge held it to have been obvious to Lac that the information was confidential and divulged only in the context of the discussions; and that the information had been crucial in leading Lac to acquire the Williams property and develop it into a gold mine worth nearly $2 billion.

Corona brought an action seeking an order that Lac “deliver up” the Williams