Multinational commodity trader Trafigura is in pole position to take control of Australia’s Savannah nickel mine, after the mine’s owner Panoramic Resources was put into administration on Thursday.

FTI Consulting will seek to sell or recapitalise Panoramic, which reopened the Savannah mine in the Kimberley region in 2021 but struggled this year when nickel prices halved, an important piece of machinery failed and bad weather severed an important transport route for the company.