Noble Mineral Resources has been placed into voluntary administration a day after announcing it was looking to restructure its Ghanaian subsidiaries’ debt to secure additional funding, after it failed to repay its debts to investment group Rothschild Australia.
Rothschild served Noble with a statutory demand in August, claiming the struggling gold miner owed it more than $4.7 million.
Noble applied in the Supreme Court of Western Australia to have the demand set aside, but this request was dismissed at the end of August.
The company was given until today to deal with the demand notice.
Noble announced today, however, that negotiations with Rothschild to settle the debt were not successful, and the miner was placed under the management of administrators Martin Jones, Darren Weaver and Ben Johnson of Ferrier Hodgson.
“The board is committed to working with the administrators to determine the future of the company and a further update will be provided to shareholders shortly,” the company said in a statement.
The appointment of administrators follows Noble announcing plans to restructure the debts of its Ghana-based subsidiaries, with a view to securing funding to complete a feasibility study on the Bibiani gold project.
The Bibiani project has been placed into care and maintenance ahead of the study, while 683 Africa-based employees will need to be made redundant.
Noble said yesterday it expected to need around $US40 million to complete the study and support the operation while it is in mothballs.
The company said it would look to restructure the debts of its subsidiaries prior to progressing funding discussions.
Noble said it would ask the Ghanaian High Court to convene a meeting of creditors to approve its debt refinancing proposal by way of three schemes of arrangement.
Noble’s subsidiaries, Noble Mining Ghana, Noble Gold Bibiani and Drilling & Mining Services, owe it more than $US270 million.
The company said its intercompany debts would only be recovered after external creditors had been repaid.
Noble’s shares remain in voluntary suspension, having last traded at 0.9 cents.