Gold mine has good prospects with proper investment and management, union says

A meeting about Ballarat Gold Mine has revealed the extent of eye-watering debt, but staff are confident their jobs will be saved. Read why.

Workers continue to dig and pour gold at Ballarat Gold Mine, despite the operator’s financial troubles. Photo: File

Workers are confident a Ballarat gold mine which entered administration earlier this month has good prospects for success provided it receives sufficient investment and is well managed.

At an extensive Ballarat Gold Mine creditors’ meeting held on Tuesday, Hall Chadwick was elected as preferred administrator of the mine, despite a legal challenge by mine operator Balmaine Gold Pty Ltd about the firm’s appointment.

Miners continued to dig and pour gold on Wednesday.

Australian Workers’ Union organiser Ross Kenna said it was agreed by all parties the mine’s work should go on, in his view, for the sake of its two to three hundred workers and the 500-plus people indirectly employed by its operations.

“From a union point of view, we’re relying on that - we’re hoping to work with any party to ensure the mine continues to run,” he said.

“I think yesterday was good that we learnt a fair bit about how many creditors, how much money was owed, where the business was at.

“ … It’s a big deal for Ballarat to keep the mine going and to keep those jobs here.”

AWU organiser Ross Kenna at Ballarat Trades Hall.

The mine’s debt totals about $38m, nearly a third of which is owed to unsecured creditors – those without collateral – including Ballarat businesses.

“We’re fairly confident with the administrator in place the mine will continue,” Mr Kenna said.

“What they told the workers yesterday was they believe they can trade out of insolvency.

“They believe that just with the pours that are happening this week, it’ll start paying a lot of the bills that they owe in the short term and they believe they can invest and trade out of it.”

He said the union had an agreeable meeting with Hall Chadwick, which it is understood was brought in by a single investor, and suggestions about its dismissal or the appointment of another administrator would have to play out in court.

“We don’t really care about the politics of it: it’s more about keeping the mine running, getting investment in, and keeping the jobs in Ballarat,” Mr Kenna said.

He believed there was about two years worth of work and a “couple of million dollars” needed to work out problems with the mine’s waste storage.

A development application for the construction of a new tailings dam for the gold mine remains before the City of Ballarat.