OZ Minerals expects to be told today whether its banks will provide a bridge loan to help the miner keep operating until it has solved its refinancing problem.
As well as trying to sell assets to help pay off $US560 million ($793.2 million) worth of debt, OZ has been bleeding cash and needs a bridge loan to cover cash shortfalls at its Prominent Hill, Golden Grove and Martabe operations.
On December 30 last year, OZ said it had secured an extension until February 27 to sort out its debt and some banks had agreed to seek internal approvals for a bridging facility. OZ has asked the lenders for a response by today.
Late yesterday, an OZ spokesman said the company was still awaiting a response.
Most of the lenders are overseas banks, so an answer might not come until late tonight.
OZ's cash shrank from $279.4 million on December 8 to just $169.2 million two weeks later.
At that rate of burn the company would run out of cash next week, but chief executive Andrew Michelmore has said one-off costs from redundancies contributed to the sharp fall and the decline was expected to slow.
OZL Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
