The lawyer for the families suing giant mining firm Xstrata over the alleged high-level of lead poisonings in Mount Isa, Queensland said over the weekend that the company's pronouncements for a hasty resolution in the case last week were nothing but lip service.

Five families filed a suit against Xstrata, the Queensland government and the city council for lead contamination in the area that resulted to brain damages to a number of kids.

On Friday last week, the mining giant hinted that Slater & Gordon, the law firm that represents the families, was unfairly subjecting the company through negative publicity without the benefit of factual accounts.

Xstrata urged the law firm to formally lodge all the cases in court, which it said should give the public full access to the full story but Slater & Gordon lawyer Damian Scattini countered that it was the company which dragged its feet on the case.

Mr Scattini said that the affected families were kept in bay by the mining giant for more than two years and it was a surprise for him to hear Xstrata challenging Slater & Gordon at this time to bring the cases to court and finally resolve the matter as expeditiously as possible.

He stressed that resolving the cases was prime of his concern though he is doubtful if Xstrata is actually toying with the same idea or it was merely resorting to another publicity stunt, asserting that "we want them in court but were they serious on Friday night or was it just more spin?"

However, Xstrata lawyer Neal O'Connor claimed that Slater & Gordon is at fault why the cases were delayed since "these claims have not been expeditiously progressed by Slater and Gordon."

Mr O'Connor said that Xstrata was puzzled by the law firm's allegations of delays as he stressed that the responsibility of progressing the claims depended wholly on Slater & Gordon, pointing out that "the first claim has only just been resubmitted in the last two weeks after being struck out by the courts as being inadequate about 18 months ago."