Yukon Zinc lawyer: company acting in good faith, plans to reopen

The lawyer for Yukon Zinc says the company made a mistake in not reporting $4.4 million held in a San Francisco bank account to a B.C. Supreme Court appointed monitor, but wants Yukon residents to know the company is acting in good faith.

The company owes more than $646 million to creditors after shutting down its Wolverine Mine, based in the Yukon, in January. 

Kibben Jackson says that the money, held in a 'suspense' account, came from a prepaid sale of zinc concentrates that was never completed to Shaanix Zinc, a Chinese company. The amount was not disclose to the court monitor, says Jackson, because Yukon Zinc officials were unclear they should do so.

"It's actually a good news story, in some sense," says Jackson, because the company worked with Shaanix Zinc, and worked with its parent company, and entered an agreement that freed up this $4.4 million U.S., so about $5 million Canadian, that made its way into its bank account for its use just in the last few weeks.

"Which is great, because that funds the ongoing restructuring, it funds the operations of the company and keeping the mine in care and maintenance, and it helps the company deal with its creditors a bit."

Jackson pointed out that both the monitor and Supreme Court judge agreed that Yukon Zinc is acting in good faith as it deals with its creditors and undergoes restructuring. He adds that the company's intention is to restructure and reopen "as soon as it makes economic sense.

"This is a 650, 700 million investment," says Jackson. "You don't do that lightly. So the company has every intention to weather this storm, to end up doing a restructuring... figure out a way of dealing with its creditors... keep the mine in a care and maintenance mode, so that it's responsibly being maintained, and wait for the opportunity to reopen and restart mining operations."