The diatomite mine in Central Otago of failed fertiliser company Featherston Resources has been sold to Australian investment company Plaman for $650,000.
The Overseas Investment Office yesterday confirmed consent had been granted for Plaman Resources Ltd to buy the 42ha site, in Moonlight Rd, Middlemarch, for $650,000.
Featherston is embroiled in a complex deed of company arrangement, with several claims and counterclaims having been the subject of legal action in Australia.
Featherston spent about $15 million in shareholder funds to start a $1 million diatomite manufacturing plant near Mosgiel in April 2011.
However, Featherston ended up in administration, owing creditors millions of dollars and in January was facing a bail-out takeover by Australian investment company Plaman Group, which at the time was offering little or no cash to shareholders for their stake.
The OIO office said in its statement yesterday: ''The applicant [Plaman Resources] is seeking to facilitate its mining operations in New Zealand.''
The private Featherston Resources was a New Zealand incorporated company, but registered as a foreign company here.
Its primary corporate office was in New South Wales.
In January, a group of 11 disgruntled Featherston shareholders were unsuccessful in seeking an injunction in the NSW Supreme Court to stop Featherston's administrators, Rodgers Reidy, having a creditors' meeting in Auckland, where the creditors subsequently voted to accept Plaman's $A4.8 million ($NZ5.4 million) offer.
That cash was to be used to pay a $A1.72 million debt owed by Featherston to a company called FRCN Pty Ltd, which had gained charge of all Featherston's assets in return for the loan.
Almost three years after launching its fertiliser export company on the Taieri Plain, near Mosgiel, Featherston was placed in receivership in January this year, having reported consecutive losses in 2012 and 2013 totalling more than $5.7 million.
• Plaman Resources Ltd was incorporated on February 13 this year. Its registered office is in Parnell, Auckland and its two directors are George Manolas and Panayiotis Plakidis, both of New South Wales.
Plaman's 100% shareholder is Burleigh Nominees Ltd, of the Isle of Man, according to Companies Office records.
