has this been posted

Miner debt call (Mark Hawthorne)

ANOTHER week, another Opes Prime-related courtroom drama.

Listed mining explorer Admiralty Resources has been hit with a demand to pay back $10.39 million that it borrowed on June 4, 2007, from Hawkswood Investments.

The demand has come from Salvatore Algeri and Chris Campbell of Deloitte, the receivers of both Hawkswood and Opes Prime.

Hawkswood is the investment company owned by Opes Prime directors Lauri Emini, Anthony Blumberg and Julian Smith.

According to court documents, the loan was ostensibly working capital to help Admiralty expand its mining venture at Cia Minera Santa Barbera in Chile.

According to an affidavit filed by Admiralty boss Phillip Thomas, and another by Blumberg, the loan was extended on June 4 last year so that Admiralty did not have to pay until it either received its first income from the mine, or by September 30 this year.

According to his affidavit, Blumberg stated that he executed that loan agreement by Hawkswood to Admiralty - a listed company that he was also a shareholder and director of. But Hawkswood's receivers say that Opes Prime going belly-up changed that and hit Admiralty with a demand for the money in June.

They say the debt was payable at June 5. If the receivers are right, it will leave a rather large hole in the books of Admiralty.

Blumberg quit as a director of Admiralty in March this year.

A conflict of interest, perhaps? Of course not - Blumberg cited his "significant involvement in the pending float of Opes Prime, one of Australia's largest and most successful margin lending and internet stockbroking organisations" for his departure from the Admiralty board.

Blumberg must have plenty of free time these days, now that Opes has crashed, and its planned float is a dashed dream. Wonder if the board of Admiralty is pondering his return?