FTI Consulting administrators recommend support for bid to revive fallen nickel miner Panoramic Resources

Shareholders will receive nothing and unsecured creditors 10¢ on the dollar under a recommended rescue proposal for Panoramic Resources, which has been tabled by an investment fund that once thwarted IGO’s takeover attempt for the now-failed nickel miner. ASX-listed Zeta Resources, which owns 15.3 per cent of Panoramic, has put forth a deed of company agreement that administrators FTI Consulting recommend creditors should vote in favour of. The deal would see outstanding employee entitlements paid in full and a large debt owed to commodities trader Trafigura restructured. But it would also leave shareholders empty handed and see unsecured creditors getting back just 9.68¢ in the dollar. FTI says going into liquidation would give unsecured creditors 1.83¢ in the dollar. Creditors will decide Panoramic’s future next Wednesday. The Zeta proposal is entirely contingent on the WA Supreme Court ruling that all payment claims made by Savannah mining services contractor Barminco are classified as unsecured debt, not priority debt. Panoramic was placed into the hands of FTI in December amid a deteriorating nickel price environment. A month later administrators pulled the pin on mining operations at the flagship Savannah nickel-copper-cobalt project about 104 kilometres north east of Halls Creek in the Kimberley, making it the first WA scalp of the nickel price crash. FTI senior managing director Daniel Woodhouse at the time said it was the administrators’ intention to continue to keep Savannah ticking along. “After consultation with major creditors and key suppliers it is apparent that the prospect of achieving a near-term turnaround of operations and finances is low,” he said. Zeta in 2019 blocked a $312 million hostile all-scrip bid for Panoramic by IGO. Zeta, which labelled the offer “opportunistic”, at the time had a 34.73 per cent stake in Panoramic. When IGO lobbed its bid for Panoramic the Savannah mine was kicking goals, but the operation soon experienced another dour chapter in its chequered history. The mine was placed in care and maintenance in 2015 before being dusted off three years later, and then mothballed again in April 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and sagging nickel prices. It was switched on once more in 2021 and touted to have a 12-year mine life as the first shipment of nickel concentrate set sail from the Wyndham Port at the end of that year. The Bermunda-headquarted Zeta has seen its shares more than halve since April 2022, partly due to Panoramic’s woes.