{"id":522337,"date":"2026-03-06T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522337\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:00:12","slug":"judge-orders-sanjeev-guptas-tahmoor-mine-be-wound-up-with-liquidators-appointed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522337\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders Sanjeev Gupta’s Tahmoor mine be wound up with liquidators appointed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New South Wales Supreme Court judge has acknowledged the serious impact job losses would have on workers, their families and the local community, while ordering a coal mine owned by Sanjeev Gupta into liquidation.<\/p>\n

Justice Ashley Black this afternoon ordered Tahmoor Coal, south-west of Sydney, to be wound up in insolvency, after more than a year of delays and voluntary administration.<\/p>\n

The mine has been non-operational for more than 12 months, leaving about 500 workers stood down and raising a series of questions about the related-party loans within Mr Gupta’s GFG business empire.<\/p>\n

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A winding up application against Tahmoor Coal has been approved by the NSW Supreme Court. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n

Justice Black acknowledged the human impact, saying he was aware of “the real and substantial personal hardship to employees, their families and the local community of a significant displacement of the workforce.”<\/p>\n

The winding up application was launched by Coal Mines Insurance (CMI) in August as the insurance provider sought about $4.5 million in unpaid premiums.<\/p>\n

In November Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance placed the mine’s holding company, Liberty Primary Metals Australia (LPMA), into voluntary administration.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, 250 of the mine’s contract workers stopped receiving pay, with contractor RStar attempting to rescue operations.<\/p>\n

Last month, as CMI pressed for liquidation, GFG placed the mine into voluntary administration in a bid to avoid winding up.<\/p>\n

The winding up application returned to court yesterday, where CMI continued to push for liquidation and explained the move would lead to the immediate loss of 238 jobs.<\/p>\n

It said 50 staff would be retained in care and maintenance.<\/p>\n

At the hearing, newly appointed administrator Joseph Hayes sought a further three-week adjournment, saying extra time might help secure alternative funding after a $40 million commitment from Clydesdale \u2014 another Gupta-owned company \u2014 to run the administration remained uncertain.<\/p>\n

Mr Hayes noted the 2024 accounts suggested the facility might be worth only $5 million and admitted he had no visibility of 2025 accounts or how other GFG entities would provide funding.<\/p>\n

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Tahmoor Colliery has been non-operational for more than 12 months. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n

Debt investigations<\/p>\n

Christopher Withers SC, appearing for CMI, highlighted the unusually high level of related-party debt \u2014\u00a0around $250 million of $432 million in total claims.<\/p>\n

He also argued that liquidation would provide stronger powers to investigate loans and security arrangements entered into while the company was insolvent.<\/p>\n

The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) provided a statement to court in support of the voluntary administration to try to save jobs.<\/p>\n

The NSW government reminded the applicant and administrator that it held a charge over the Tahmoor mining lease to recover unpaid royalties and could appoint a receiver to protect its interests.<\/p>\n

The government is owed about $30 million in unpaid royalties.<\/p>\n

‘Most difficult decision’<\/p>\n

This afternoon, Justice Black said it was the most difficult case he had considered in his 15 years on the court.<\/p>\n

“I’m conscious of and troubled by the impact on employees of not adjourning the winding up to not allow the voluntary administration to continue.”<\/p>\n

He also said the liquidator would have the power to conduct investigations into some of the “significant transactions” behind the mine’s financial collapse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Justice Ashley Black says he is aware of the impact his decision will have on the Tahmoor community. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n

Justice Black appointed Shaun Fraser and Jonathan Henry as the liquidators and ordered the plaintiff’s costs, including reserved costs, were costs in the winding up.<\/p>\n

In a statement the MEU said it was disappointed by the outcome.<\/p>\n

“We fear for our members and the employees at Tahmoor Colliery,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“We are seeking as an immediate meeting with CMI administrators or Coal Services administrators so that we can sit down and talk [about] the best outcome for our members and the employers at Tahmoor Colliery.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, a GFG Alliance spokesperson said the operation acknowledged the decision of the court.<\/p>\n

“Had the voluntary administration continued, the administrators would have progressed their ongoing work, including advancing the expeditious sale of Tahmoor Colliery.<\/p>\n

“In our view, a sale conducted through the voluntary administration would have provided the best opportunity to maximise value for stakeholders while maintaining continuity for employees during the process.”<\/p>\n

They said the company would cooperate with the liquidators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New South Wales Supreme Court judge has acknowledged the serious impact job losses would have on workers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,37160,37159,224866,145182,260435],"class_list":{"0":"post-522337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-gfg-alliance","12":"tag-sanjeev-gupta","13":"tag-tahmoor","14":"tag-tahmoor-coal","15":"tag-tahmoor-mine-to-be-liquidated"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}