Indochine Mining Limited Indochine Mining Limited Indochine Mining Limited

Ferrier Hodgson was appointed Voluntary Administrators of the Company on 27 March 2015 pursuant to Section 436A of the Corporations Act 2001.

The first meeting of creditors was held on Friday, 10 April 2015 and the second meeting of creditors on Wednesday, 13 May 2015. At the second meeting, creditors resolved the Company should execute the Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) proposed by Kandahar Holdings Pty Ltd. Accordingly, the DOCA was subsequently executed on 4 June 2015.

The Company’s secured creditor continues to provide funding to maintain the Company’s infrastructure at Mt Kare in good standing and to meet the costs associated with legal and regulatory requirements in PNG and Australia.

On 17 June 2015, Mr Stephen Promnitz (former Chief Executive Officer) filed an application to the Federal Court of Australia (the Court) seeking orders that:

1. the DOCA executed on 4 June 2015 be set aside, and
2. the second creditors meeting held on 13 May 2015 be adjourned and reconvened on a date to be set by the Court.

The Application was heard by the Court on 23 July 2015 and the judgement, delivered on 17 August 2015, was that the proceedings were wholly dismissed and costs were awarded against Mr Promnitz. On 4 September 2015, Mr Promnitz filed a Notice of Appeal against the judgement made by his Honour, Justice Foster. The appeal, which was scheduled to be heard on 19 October 2015, has been dismissed and the appeal process is now at an end.

In accordance with clause 22.1 of the DOCA, Ben Johnson and Darren Weaver resigned as Deed Administrators on 15 October 2015 and 16 December 2015 respectively following their retirement from the Ferrier Hodgson practice.

During the Administration of Indochine, I have continued to liaise with local and international stakeholders with a view to obtaining renewal of exploration licence EL1093 (EL1093) and preserving operations in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

On 14 July 2014, the Company’s subsidiary, Summit Development Limited (SDL), lodged an application with the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) in PNG for renewal of EL1093. On 18 January 2016, I was advised by the MRA that the Minister for Mining, Hon. Byron Chan, had refused SDL’s application to renew EL1093 on 14 December 2015. Subsequent to the advice from the MRA, SDL lodged an application for the grant of a new exploration licence over the Mt Kare area; however, I am aware that three (3) other applicants have also lodged applications prior to SDL.

As previously announced to the market, I filed an application with the PNG National Court on 1 March 2016 seeking a judicial review of the Minister’s decision to refuse SDL’s application. The hearing to consider granting of leave for the judicial review to proceed, originally scheduled for 5 April 2016, was heard on 7 April 2016 by the National Court of Justice, Papua New Guinea.

At the hearing, the presiding judge granted SDL leave to:

• apply for Judicial Review of the Minister’s rejection of the renewal application and the mining Advisory Council’s recommendation made on or around 21 July 2015,
• file and serve substantive Notice of Motion by 1 May 2016, and
• stay of proceedings.

We were advised by SDL’s lawyers in PNG that the effect of the grant of leave and stay orders is that, as SDL’s extension application remains unresolved, the holdover provisions in the PNG Mining Act 1992 for exploration licences subject to a timely renewal application continue to apply and the ground is not available for any other exploration licence application (ELA).

The Judicial Review of the decision by the Minister for Mining not to approve SDL's application for renewal of EL1093 for the Mt Kare project was unsuccessful after a ruling by Justice Nablu. An appeal of this decision was heard and we have been notified of expected delays to reaching the outcome of the appeal due to multiple factors including the global COVID-19 pandemic; therefore, the conditions precedent for the Company's DOCA have been extended to 31 July 2020.

Indochine Mining Limited (ASX: IDC) is a gold-silver exploration company with its primary development being the Mt Kare project in Papua New Guinea, controlled through a wholly owned subsidiary. The Company also held exploration rights in Cambodia.

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