A FEDERAL court has ordered mining company GBM Gold be wound up as the aftershocks from the collapse of Bendigo mining continue to reverberate.
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Former chief executive John Harrison has successfully forced his old company to be declared insolvent in the fallout from the end of 170 years of mining in and under Bendigo.
The Bendigo Advertiser understands Mr Harrison was owed money and GBM Gold had missed a deadline to pay him, triggering Friday's court decision.
Representatives of Mr Harrison declined to comment.
GBM Gold's subsidiary Kralcopic owned licences to Bendigo gold sites from 2017 onwards but struggled to pay off debts and raise the money needed to begin a series of projects.
State mining authority Earth Resources Regulation revoked its Bendigo licences in 2019 and the subsidiary launched an appeal in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
That failed earlier this year and Kralcopic went into liquidation. The state government promised to rehabilitate key sites at Woodvale and Kangaroo Flat.
GBM Gold is understood to have taken a heavy financial hit from Kralcopic's collapse.
At one stage earlier this year, it told its subsidiary's then-administrators that Kralcopic owed it $7 million.
GBM Gold had a series of other licences to explore or mine for minerals in Victoria.
That included joint partnerships with other parties.
It is unclear what will happen to those projects now.
The Advertiser has reached out to Eric Ng, who was chairman of GBM Gold before the federal court ordered liquidation.
The paper has also reached out to provisional liquidators.
It is yet to hear back from either party.
Back when Kralcopic collapsed, a number of that company's stakeholders tried to get a new deed of company arrangement that would have saved some land for mining including in Kangaroo Flat.
A source who asked for anonymity to discuss commercially sensitive matters said some people with financial stakes in GBM Gold might be interested in a similar bid for the company's licences.
They said exploration and mining ground was highly lucrative because of an investment boom in the state.
"There's no doubt there would be value and interest in remaining mining assets of GBM Gold, within the industry," the source said.
The Advertiser understands there are about 680 GBM Gold shareholders.
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