Austral Resources has shaken off its financial woes with a little help from its friends.
Offtake partner Glencore has stepped in to take over the company’s senior secured debt from Wingate.
Glencore is now senior secured creditor marking the end of ‘receivership’ status for Austral.
Control of the Austral group of companies again rests with the board which chief executive Dan Jauncey says is a very positive outcome.
“It puts us back in a strong position to move forward,” Mr Jauncey says. “With copper prices and demand rising, we are entering a new era.”
Austral’s assets include the Mount Kelly processing facility and Anthill mine, where Thiess is mining contractor.
Its tenements lie 120km north of Mount Isa and contain a cluster of former mines and potential growth projects including Lady Annie, Mount Clarke/Flying Horse, and Lady Colleen.
Austral says the company ‘remained focused on maintaining production levels throughout the receivership period’.
Its inventory stands at 810 tonnes of LME copper cathode ready for sale.
Operations such as haulage, crushing, and processing were uninterrupted and are ongoing.
The company says the Anthill and Mount Kelly run-of-mines contain 300,000 tonnes of ore at an average copper grade of 0.73 per cent, ready for processing.
‘The company is actively continuing discussions with Glencore and other secured creditors, with a focus on restructuring of the business,’ it stated in an update to the ASX.
Austral Resource’s Anthill Mine