The whole court case was to resolve CLF's request to build a road across KWG claims without obtaining KWG's permission to do so. The Mining Commissioner ruled CLF's could not build without KWG's permission. CLF appealed, KWG appealed that decision, and finally the court ruled KWG's permission wasn't required.

Yes, the court ruling does affect a claim holder's precedence in use of surface rights on mining claims, as the claim holder's permission isn't required to build infrastructure. The Minister of Natural Resources should be applied to for such permission, as well as normal Environmental Assessments etc.

The point isn't "permission" but "permission of the claimholder" -surely if building a road doesn't require permission (from the claimholder), walking across those same claims also doesn't require that permission.