Hall Chadwick has been appointed administrator of Balmaine Gold, the Australian subsidiary of Singaporean company Shen Yao.
Balmaine has not been able to produced saleable gold from its Ballarat mine since October 2022, when the Victorian Government ordered the company to cease depositing wastes in the tailings storage facility.
The State Government ordered the stoppage due to the dam becoming dangerously close to regulated capacity.
While the company has still been allowed to remove ore from underground, the order made it impossible for Balmaine to use the facility to extract the gold.
Owing to the stoppage of production, Balmaine has also been unable to make regular payments to its suppliers.
The Australian Financial Review received confirmation from one supplier, drilling contractor Deepcore, that it had removed rigs from the mine, pending payment.
“The contract remains on foot but drilling operations have been stood down pending further payments,” a spokesman for Deepcore said.
The mine employs over 200 people, but has experienced high staff turnover in recent times.
“As the finance team is located at Ballarat, which is far away from the major cities like Melbourne and Sydney, with a very small candidate pool available, the company has faced difficulties in recruiting qualified personnel to fill the vacancies despite setting attractive remuneration packages,” said Shen Yao in a filing to the Singapore exchange.
According to Shen Yao, the mine is planning to do a gold pour over this coming weekend in a bid to generate cash flow and settle invoices.