Introduction and background
1 Late in the afternoon on Friday 30 June 2023, Pit N Portal Mining Services Pty Ltd (ACN 116 432 814) and the plaintiffs executed an instrument by which Pit N Portal appointed the plaintiffs the putative joint and several administrators of Aurora Metals Limited (ACN 126 634 606) under s 436C of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The basis of the appointment was that Pit N Portal was a person entitled to enforce a security interest in the whole, or substantially the whole, of Aurora Metals' property because the security interest was then enforceable. The relevant security interest was granted under a General Security Agreement dated 28 April 2023 between Aurora Metals, as grantor, and Pit N Portal, as grantee. That security interests was a PPSA security interest that Pit N Portal had registered under the Personal Property and Security Act 2009 (Cth) on 22 June 2023 and was, therefore, perfected within the meaning of the PPSA.
2 Shortly after the instrument of appointment was executed, the administrators acted to remove and replace the directors of certain companies that were immediate subsidiaries of Aurora Metals. The newly appointed directors then resolved to remove and replace the directors of the immediate subsidiaries of those companies and so on until all the companies referred to in the Schedule to the originating process had removed and replaced their directors. The newly appointed directors then resolved to appoint the administrators joint and several administrators of each of those companies under s 436A of the Act. In these reasons, Aurora Metals and each of the companies referred to in the schedule are referred to as the Group Companies.
3 Aurora Metals is the parent of the Group Companies which collectively own and operate several mines in Queensland that produce a variety of commodities including zinc, copper, lead gold and silver. Operations at the mines ceased during June 2023 due to financial difficulties and mine operations were placed on care and maintenance.
4 Pit N Portal is a mining services contractor. It provides care and maintenance services to the mines and made a mining services agreement with Aurora Metals in December 2021 by which it provided underground mining services for a mining operation known as the Chillagoe Project. As a result of non-payment of invoices due under that mining services contract, Aurora Metals and Pit N Portal made a deed of forbearance and repayment on 28 April 2023 and the GSA.
5 On 28 April 2023, Emeco International Pty Limited, a company related to Pit N Portal, purported to register a security interest under the PPSA in respect of the GSA. That purported registration was not effective because it was not in the name of the grantee and, therefore, failed to perfect the security interests granted under the GSA within the meaning of the PPSA. Subsequently, on 22 June 2023, Pit N Portal registered a security interest under the PPSA. That registration was effective as it was in the correct name of the grantee. That registration had the effect of perfecting, within the meaning of the PPSA, the security interest granted under the GSA.
6 It is evident that Aurora Metals failed to comply with the repayment plan set out in the deed of forbearance and repayment. Matters came to a head on 30 June 2023 when Pit N Portal indicated that it would not continue providing care and maintenance services unless Aurora Metals was able to secure funding to pay for the provision of those services. Pit N Portal had proposed that directors of Aurora Metals appoint administrators and that Avior Asset Management Pty Ltd provide funding for the administration in accordance with a proposed term sheet. The directors of Aurora Metals rejected that offer and, thereafter, Pit N Portal immediately took steps to appoint the administrators. Shortly after Pit N Portal executed the instrument to appoint the administrators, it offered to continue providing care and maintenance services subject to confirmation from the administrators that they had secured funding to pay for those services and the administrators issuing a purchase order for those services by 7.00 pm (AWST) on 30 June 2023.
7 In an affidavit sworn in support of the originating application, Mr Richard Scott Tucker, one of the administrators, deposed that, in substance, if care and maintenance services ceased, dewatering of at least one of the mines would cease and that mine could become flooded and the mine infrastructure damaged. Put another way, without dewatering there was a risk that the value of the assets of the Group Companies would be diminished to the detriment of the unsecured (and secured) creditors.
8 Mr Tucker also deposed that Avior was willing to provide funding to the administrators on the terms set out in a draft loan facility agreement annexed to his affidavit. The terms of that proposed agreement, in effect, were subject to a condition subsequent that the Court made orders modifying the operation of s 443A(1) of the Act such that the administrators' liability under the loan facility agreement would be limited to the extent of the administrators' indemnity under ss 443D and 443F of the Act. It was also a condition subsequent that the administrators would apply to the Court for such orders within 7 days after execution of the agreement.
9 In the circumstances described, the administrators applied for urgent orders to be made under s 447A of the Act. If such orders were made, the administrators would be in a position to confirm funding and issue a purchase order to ensure that Pit N Portal continued providing care and maintenance services and to mitigate the risk of damage arising from mine flooding. For the reasons which follow, I made the orders requested with respect to the loan facility agreement.
10 The administrators also requested that the Court make declarations as to the validity of their appointments, alternatively, that orders be made under s 447A having the effect of confirming the validity of their appointments. The administrators requested that orders be made confirming the validity of their appointment as administrators of Aurora Metals under s 436C of the Act because, in the circumstances described earlier, for the purposes of s 588FL(2) of the Act, the latest time for registration of the security interest in the collateral granted under the GSA was 20 business days after 28 April 2023. As the security interest was not registered until 22 June 2023, that registration was after the 'latest time'. As a consequence, by operation of s 588FL, the PPSA security interest granted under the GSA vested in Aurora Metals immediately before the administrators were appointed under s 436C.
11 The administrators submitted that these circumstances created doubt about the validity of their appointment as administrators of Aurora Metals under s 436C of the Act. That, in turn, created doubt about the process by which the directors of the other Group Companies were removed and replaced and resolutions made appointing them administrators of all those companies under s 436A of the Act. Additionally, at the time the originating process was filed, the administrators had not been able to verify that the removal and replacement of the directors of those companies had been carried out in accordance with the constitutions of those companies. That second area of doubt was removed between 30 June 2023 and 4 July 2023.
12 The administrators filed and read a second affidavit of Mr Tucker sworn 3 July 2023. Exhibited to that affidavit were circular resolutions the administrators executed on behalf of Aurora Metals to replace the directors of companies that are the immediate subsidiaries of Aurora Metals. Exhibited to that affidavit were circular resolutions of the directors (as replaced) of other Group Companies by which all directors of the Group Companies were removed and replaced. Also exhibited to that affidavit were forms (Form 505) each relevant Group Company lodged with ASIC with respect to the appointment of the administrators as administrators of that company. The resolutions appointing the administrators under s 436A were exhibited to Mr Tucker's first affidavit. The administrators also filed and read an affidavit of Ms Jing Yun Soh sworn 3 July 2023 which exhibited the constitutions of each of the Group Companies. The substance of these affidavits was that, subject to the validity of the administrators' appointment under s 436C of the Act and the consequential validity of the replacement of the directors of the other Group Companies and their resolutions to appoint the administrators under s 436A of the Act, the administrators were satisfied that their appointments as administrators of the Group Companies were in accordance with the constitutions and the Act.
13 The administrators filed and read a second affidavit of Ms Soh sworn 4 July 2023. Although an executed version of the loan facility agreement was not in evidence, that affidavit exhibited a remittance advice demonstrating that there had been a drawdown on a loan and transfer of $750,000 from Avior to the administrators on 4 July 2023. That affidavit also exhibited email correspondence between lawyers of Lavan (the administrators' solicitors) and lawyers of Dentons (who identified themselves as acting for Mt Garnet Mineral Finance Pty Ltd, a secured creditor, who had appointed Mr Phillip Campbell-Wilson and Mr Said Jahani of Grant Thornton as receivers and managers of all present and after acquired property of the Group Companies).
14 In the period between 30 June 2023 and 4 July 2023, Pit N Portal also filed an originating process by which it sought an order under s 588FM to extend the latest time, to 22 June 2023, for registration of the security interest in the collateral granted under the GSA. For the reasons given in a separate judgment on that originating process, I made the requested orders: Pit N Portal Mining Services Pty Ltd v Aurora Metals Limited (Administrators Appointed) [2023] FCA 762. However, the terms of those orders make provision for a person with a sufficient interest to apply to vary or set aside the order extending the time for registration.
15 Having regard to the order made under s 588FM, the question of the validity of the administrators' appointment under s 436C as administrators of Aurora Metals and the validity of their appointment as administrators of the other Group Companies under s 436A is moot unless and until an order is made varying or setting aside the s 588FM order. However, to avoid any uncertainty concerning the validity of the administrators' appointment in the meantime, for the reasons given later, I made orders that will have the effect of validating the administrators' appointment from 30 June 2023 to the date any order is made varying or setting aside the s 588FM order.
16 For completeness, I should add that Mt Garnett Mineral Finance requested and was granted leave to appear on the hearing of the originating process. Mt Garnett Mineral Finance made no submissions in opposition to the orders the administrators sought on that application after I had indicated the orders that would be made on Pit N Portal's originating process. Pit N Portal also appeared on the administrators' originating process. It made no submissions in opposition to the orders the administrators' requested but made a submission, which I accepted, that the appointment validation aspects of the administrators originating process should not be determined until after Pit N Portal's originating process was heard and determined.