is this the ultimate definition of irony?

Read the last paragraph -

OZ shares soar over debt extension
Jamie Freed
February 27, 2009 - 10:30AM

OZ Minerals has been granted a one-month extension on $1.2 billion of debt from its banking syndicate, to help give China Minmetals enough time to complete a $2.6 billion takeover bid for the company.

The miner this morning reported a full-year loss of $2.485 billion after write-downs of $2.309 billion. Before the write-downs, it reported a loss of $66.4 million.

It had $149.6 million of cash on hand as of yesterday.

OZ shares soared 6 cents, or 10.7%, to 62 cents in early trade.

OZ said it had yet to complete to sale of its Martabe and Golden Grove operations, which are expected to fetch more than $400 million combined.

The extension from the bankers should provide comfort to the miner's belaugered shareholders.

"We're delighted we achieved this ahead of the deadline which is a first in recent months," OZ's chief executive, Andrew Michelmore, told analysts this morning

Minmetals is offering 82.5 cents for each OZ share under a scheme of arrangement, which has been recommended by directors.

OZ Minerals has been forced to pursue asset sales and other cost-reduction measures including, job and production cuts and mine closures to conserve cash as it tries to repay its debt.

The company is continuing to pursue the sale of the Martabe gold and silver project in Indonesia and the Golden Grove polymetallic mine in Western Australia.

''OZ Minerals board and management responded swiftly to the impact of these price declines with the suspension of multiple capital projects totalling $495 million and by cutting operational expenditure by $185 million,'' Mr Michelmore said.

OZ Minerals delivered an 8% increase in revenue to $1.28 billion for the year, largely due to the additional contribution of the Zinifex assets for the second half.

The company was formed through the merger of copper and gold producer Oxiana and zinc and lead miner Zinifex last year.

OZ Minerals did not declare a final dividend ''as a result of lower earnings in order to conserve cash''.