Collapsed Queensland miner Aurora Metals owes workers at least $3.4m
Troubled miner Aurora Metals owes creditors up to $170m, including $3.4m to hundreds of workers and $18m in unpaid royalties to the state government.
Queensland miner Aurora Metals collapsed owing its workforce at least $3.4m and hundreds of workers were owed at least a month’s backpay, their annual leave and other entitlements.
KordaMentha’s Richard Tucker, David Osborne and Tony Miskiewicz were appointed by the Federal Court as the company’s administrator in early July, after contractor Emeco stepped in to protect its position over unpaid debts at the north Queensland base metals miner.
Administrators held the first creditors’ meeting of the company on Wednesday, and The Australian understands participants were told the company collapsed owing up to $170m in total.
That figure includes $18m due in unpaid royalties to the Queensland government, another $10m in statutory payments to the Australian Taxation Office and local government bodies, and at least $3.4m to its own workforce in backpay, annual leave and other entitlements, and redundancy pay.
Aurora closed its operating mines in May and June as the company’s troubles mounted, laying off about 150 workers.
The company’s operations are now under the control of a second insolvency firm, GrantThornton, appointed as Aurora’s receiver and manager by its biggest secured creditor, Mt Garnet Mineral Finance, and it is understood some staff engaged in care and maintenance work are still being employed by the company.
In a circular to employees, KordaMentha said its initial investigations suggested the company’s workforce had not yet been paid by the company their final month’s wages, warning former staff they may be forced to wait until a potential liquidation of Aurora to be able to claim back wages and entitlements from the federal government’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee scheme.
“Unfortunately, the administrators have insufficient funds to process the payment of outstanding wages and employee entitlements at this time,” it said.
“If the companies are placed into liquidation at the second meeting of creditors, you may be entitled to lodge a claim with the Commonwealth Government under the FEG.”
Mt Garnet registered a security over all of Aurora’s assets in March 2022 – only shortly after the company was first registered, according to ASIC records.
ASIC records show Aurora’s major customer, China Railway Materials, also holds security over Aurora assets, including mining equipment and other assets, and is taking action in the federal court to protect its position.
Emeco was providing care and maintenance services at one of the company’s mines. When Aurora failed to pay its bills, Emco called in KordaMentha as administrators after Aurora directors refused to agree to a bailout package that would have involved Perth-based lending group Avior Asset Management putting up a $10m facility to back work at the mothballed operation – required to keep the mine in a saleable state – but which would also have required the appointment of voluntary administrators.
Formerly known as Consolidated Tin Mines, the bulk of Aurora’s assets are effectively a reconsolidation of those owned by failed base metals play Kagara – a company once worth as much as $1bn which collapsed in 2012 as metals prices plunged at the end of the last mining boom.
Aurora owns four underground mines including King Vol and Mungana, a 500,000 tonne-a-year processing plant at Mt Garnet and a 600,000 tonne processing plant near the North Queensland town of Chillagoe.
All are now in care and maintenance.