Taxpayers are set to be the big losers after struggling mineral sands miner Strandline Resources waved the white flag and entered voluntary administration.
The taxpayer-funded Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is Strandline’s biggest financial backer and has dished out loans totalling about $140m to the company since 2020, including $10m in the December quarter.
Strandline had been working on a recapitalisation deal after being granted breathing space by NAIF and its other major financiers, the National Australia Bank and Nordic bond holders, who agreed in December to defer debt repayments until the end of February.
The latest failure of a NAIF backed project in WA follows the collapse of Kalium Lakes in 2023. The then ASX-listed potash play had received about $83m in NAIF loans.
NAIF chief strategic policy officer Cathie McBean told The Australian Bush Summit held in Port Hedland last year that failed investments were an inevitable consequence of a mandate to invest where major banks wouldn’t tread.
The $7bn facility’s investment mandate includes funding of projects in northern Australia that facilitate and support the development of economic infrastructure.
The Albanese government is reviewing whether…