RULING: The High Court yesterday approved the €35 million sale of the Bula lead and zinc mine at Nevinstown, Co Meath to adjoining landowner, Tara Mines. Afterwards, Mr Michael Wymes, one of the two remaining directors of Bula (in receivership), said they would consider an appeal to the Supreme Court against the sale. Approval for the sale was sought by the Bula receiver, Mr Laurence Crowley.
The court was told last April that plans for the re-opening of the Tara mine this month had been predicated on the application before the courts for the sale of the ore body to be concluded.
So far the 31-year Bula saga has resulted in legal bills estimated at between €15 million and €20 million.
Mr Crowley was appointed in October 1985 by the banks when the debt of Bula was €17 million. The sale of the mine will only partially discharge the debt now estimated to be more than €76 million.
Mr Wymes and his co-director, Mr Richard Wood, face huge bills for legal costs. Both men are currently awaiting a Supreme Court hearing of their appeal against another High Court finding in which it was held that debts owing to the banks by Bula were not statute barred.
Mr Wymes and Mr Wood opposed Mr Crowley's application to approve the sale. Those in favour were two Bula directors, Mr Thomas J Roche, and representatives of the late Mr Thomas C Roche; three banks - Northern Bank Finance Corporation, Ulster Investment Bank and Allied Irish Banks; and Tara Mines.
Approving the sale yesterday, Mr Justice Murphy said the receiver believed the Tara offer represented the "best available price for the mine in all the circumstances and is by far the best offer which it has been possible to obtain following an extensive and exhaustive marketing campaign".
The judge said Mr Wymes had opposed "in the most strenuous terms" the receiver's plan to sell for €35 million and had referred to the size of the ore body which, according to four independent consultants, has reserves varying from 10.2 million tonnes at 11.2 per cent combined lead and zinc grading to 14 million tons at a 10 per cent grading.
Mr Wymes had contrasted the current Tara offer of €35 million with what he claimed were previous Tara offers.
He alleged there had been an offer of more than €50 million in 1992 on a liability-free basis in return for termination of all litigation, €46 million in 1994 subject to the company being free of debt and about €42 million as part of an overall settlement of all proceedings in 1996.
In Mr Wymes's view, the open market value of Bula as a greenfield independent underground mine ought to be in excess of €76 million, the judge said.
Mr Wymes had also claimed that Tara had been the main objector to Bula's application for planning permission and that the permission that was granted in 1982 was subject to conditions that were commercially inoperable and discriminatory as compared to the permission granted to the neighbouring Tara operation.
Mr Justice Murphy said that 45 parties expressed various levels of interest in the ore body but there did seem to him to be a factor that may have inhibited the market. This was the condition relating to litigation.
No one wanted to buy into litigation, particularly where it was not of the buyer's making. Litigation had contributed to a situation in which the debts owed by Bula were now very significant.
The judge held that the receiver had exercised all reasonable care necessary to obtain the best price.
