Sanjeev Gupta’s Tahmoor Coal mine has been placed into voluntary administration just hours before a court hearing which could have forced the mine’s owner into liquidation over unpaid insurance premiums.
About 500 workers have been without work since the mine south-west of Sydney closed last February after it was caught up in the financial turmoil surrounding Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance.
The mine’s parent company, Liberty Primary Metals Australia (LPMA), was placed in administration in November, with an expressions-of-interest period for potential buyers of the mine set to close on February 11.
A local consortium led by the mine’s majority contractor, RStar, had made an offer of $350 million to buy the mine outside of the expressions-of-interest process in the past fortnight, in the hope of getting the mine operational as quickly as possible.
Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance confirmed it had entered Tahmoor Coal into voluntary administration as the NSW Supreme Court prepared to hear a winding-up application brought by Coal Mines Insurance (CMI).
The last-minute move was designed to prevent creditors from forcing liquidation over unpaid insurance premiums.
The court heard Sunjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance Tahmoor Coal mine had been placed in voluntary…