Macquarie Bank executives felt there was a good chance the Tasmanian Beaconsfield Gold Mine would "continue to deliver" while they were attempting to buy $77.5 million in inter-company debt from its operator Allstate Explorations for just $300,000 in 2001, the ACT Supreme Court heard yesterday.

The bank and two executives, Warwick Morris and Jonathan Rourke, are suing Nationwide News for defamation over an article printed in The Australian in March 2005, which claimed it misled creditors of Allstate about the mine's prospects and threatened to close the mine down if the deal did not go ahead.