Pasminco was an Australian mining company founded in 1988. It was placed in

voluntary administration As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions, similar to bankruptcy in the United States. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry o ...

in September 2001 with its assets sold in stages until 2004 when the remaining assets were spun-off to

Zinifex Zinifex was an Australian company that operated lead and zinc mines, refineries and a lead smelter. It was established in April 2004, when the assets of Pasminco were spun-off. In 2008 it merged with Oxiana to form OZ Minerals. History In ...

History

Pasminco was established in 1988 when Conzinc Riotinto of Australia and North Broken Hill Peko merged their lead and zinc operations. In May 1998 the

Emu Bay Railway The Emu Bay Railway was a Tasmania, Australian railway company. The railway was significant during full operation, in that it linked the Tasmanian Government Railways system at Burnie with that at Zeehan that further linked to the Mount Lyell ...

, which hauled trains from Pasminco's zinc mine at Rosebery to

Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popul ...

, was sold to

Australian Transport Network Australian Transport Network (ATN) was a freight railway operator in Australia that commenced operating in November 1997. The company operated narrow gauge trains in Tasmania and standard gauge trains in New South Wales and Victoria. It was form ...

. On 19 September 2001, Pasminco was placed in

due to a combination of low commodities prices, high debt servicing costs, the adverse impact of a weak Australian dollar on its currency hedging position and a failure to secure appropriate financial accommodation from its financiers. In March 2002, its

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

mining operations were sold to Perilya. Remaining assets including mines in

Mount Isa Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive single mines in world history, bas ...

and Rosebery, and

smelters Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ch ...

Budel Budel is a town in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Cranendonck, 25 km outside Eindhoven. Kempen Airport is located near Budel. History It was first mentioned in 779 as in Budilio, and means "plac ...

(The Netherlands), Clarkesville (United States),

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

and

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...

, were spun-off to a new entity,

, which was

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

in April 2004. Other assets including the

Cockle Creek Smelter Cockle Creek Smelter was a zinc and lead smelter located at the northern end of Lake Macquarie near Boolaroo in Newcastle, New South Wales. The smelter was built in by the Sulphide Corporation in 1896 and the first attempts to refine zinc using th ...

were wound down. The Cockle Creek Smelter was closed in September 2003 with the largest site remediation in Australia conducted over an 11-year period. With this completed, in November 2014 administrator

Ferrier Hodgson Ferrier Hodgson was a firm specialising in corporate recovery, corporate advisory, forensic accounting and forensic IT. The firm has a specialist management consulting arm called Azurium. Ferrier Hodgson was established in 1976. It became on ...

advised creditors they would receive 22 cents in the dollar.Pasminco's rocky road
''Newcastle Herald'' 30 November 2014

References

{{Mining companies of Australia Companies based in Melbourne Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Defunct mining companies of Australia Former Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries 1988 establishments in Australia 2004 disestablishments in Australia