Indigenous traditional owners opposed to the Adani Carmichael coalmine have lost a full-bench appeal to the federal court, which has upheld a land-use agreement and ordered a group of elders to pay the miner’s costs.

The minority group of five Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) people had sought to invalidate an Indigenous land-use agreement (ILUA) approved by seven of 12 native title applicants.

In a 44-page judgment, the three judges unanimously dismissed arguments that the agreement did not meet the legal requirements of the Native Title Act, partly because of the process and composition of an authorisation meeting that voted 294-1 in favour.

Justice Melissa Perry reasoned that this was the case “notwithstanding any deficiencies which might have tainted the validity of the certification”.

The Queensland government has been waiting for the outcome of the court case, and can act at any time to formally extinguish the native title of the W&J people at the Carmichael mine site.

The minority W&J group is likely to make a direct appeal to the government to not extinguish the native title, and that the legal decision should not invalidate its arguments that the process was flawed.

“The decision [hinged] only on the question of whether the certification and registration of the Adani ILUA were administered according to the legal requirements of the Native Title Act,” the W&J family council senior spokesman Adrian Burragubba said.

“It will not pull back the veil on the … process leading up to and after the authorisation meeting. Nor will it confirm whether in fact the people in attendance at the Adani meeting were entitled under the laws and customs of Wangan and Jagalingou people to make that decision to sign away W&J rights in land for monetary compensation.”

Part of the issue is the way the native title system pushes traditional owners to come to a financial settlement with miners or developers, or to fight proposals and risk getting nothing.

The court awarded costs against the traditional owners. Adani is already seeking $600,000 in court costs, which would bankrupt Burragubba.