Myra Falls: the mine stayed, and the claims went to Calgary

The Myra Falls mine sits in Strathcona Provincial Park, about 90 kilometres southwest of Campbell River on Vancouver Island, and it sold every tonne of the zinc, copper and lead concentrate it produced to one buyer, Trafigura Canada Limited, under an offtake agreement. In 2019 Trafigura Pte Ltd. became the indirect majority shareholder of Nyrstar, the mine's owner, and from then on the Trafigura group funded the operation with unsecured shareholder loans — more than $100 million outstanding by November 30, 2023, per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor, Dec. 18, 2023, paras. 8–10. "Since the acquisition, the Mine has been unsuccessful in achieving profitability," the proposed monitor wrote, citing a zinc price that trended down through 2023 and production costs that had risen; Trafigura was no longer willing to fund the mine and had demanded repayment of its loans, per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor, Dec. 18, 2023, paras. 14–15.

That December the mine employed 370 people, 265 of them represented by Unifor Local 3019 under a collective agreement that had expired in September. It paid benefits to the Wei Wai Kum and We Wai Kai First Nations under an impact and benefit agreement signed that February, and leased the Discovery Terminal on Wei Wai Kum land, per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor, Dec. 18, 2023, paras. 11–16. The plan on filing was to put the mine into care and maintenance.

On September 9, 2026, two years and nine months later, Madam Justice Fitzpatrick approved the monitor's fees and signed the order that ends the proceeding. The petitioner in the style of cause is no longer the mine. It is 2750361 Alberta Inc.

Trafigura on every side of the ledger

The initial order of December 18, 2023 appointed FTI Consulting Canada Inc. as monitor and approved interim financing from Trafigura US Inc.: an initial advance of up to $4.0 million, raised to the full $21.0 million ten days later in the amended and restated initial order, per the Ninth Report of the Monitor, Aug. 27, 2026, paras. 1–3. Trafigura had funded the business since 2019, and the proposed monitor described it as "the most logical party to provide the required financing on the available timeline," per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor, Dec. 18, 2023, para. 22.

The DIP ceiling then moved with the calendar. The court authorized $26.5 million in June 2024, $34.0 million that August, $37.0 million in January 2025, $45.0 million in April and $51.5 million in July, each increase attached to a stay extension, per the Ninth Report of the Monitor, Aug. 27, 2026, paras. 5–10.

The first sale and investment solicitation process, approved in February 2024, "failed to result in a viable transaction," in the monitor's words. What the proceeding produced instead, through 2024 and into 2025, were pieces: a swap of certain assets for a 2016 Sandvik loader with Amalgamated Mining & Tunnelling Inc.; the assignment of a Sandvik equipment lease to Nyrstar Tennessee Mines – Strawberry Plains LLC, which the monitor identifies as "a related party to MFM"; a sale process for equipment and parts; and, in January 2025, an auction and liquidation agreement with Maynards Industries II Canada Ltd. The same month the court appointed William Kaplan K.C. to mediate between the mine and the union, per the Ninth Report of the Monitor, Aug. 27, 2026, paras. 6, 8, 19(p). The mediation ran February 18 and 20, 2025. "The parties met with the mediator for two days during which time various proposals were exchanged, but the parties were not able to reach an agreement," per the Seventh Report of the Monitor, Apr. 1, 2025, para. 16.

A price made of the DIP

The second process, approved on April 3, 2025, came with a stalking horse already signed: a subscription agreement with Trafigura Holding S.à r.l., structured for a reverse vesting order. Its purchase price was not a number. It was defined as all outstanding amounts under the DIP facility at closing, plus cash sufficient to fund the monitor's and its counsel's post-closing work up to $100,000, pay the obligations secured by the court-ordered charges, and cover the priority payments required by ss. 6(3), 6(5) and 6(6) of the CCAA. The purchaser was entitled to up to $500,000 in expense reimbursement if someone else won, per the Seventh Report of the Monitor, Apr. 1, 2025, paras. 23–24.

The monitor supported it on its own terms. The bid was superior to anything the first process had produced, it preserved "the possibility of a future restart of the Myra Falls Mine," and "while the Stalking Horse Bid would not see any recovery to unsecured creditors of MFM, other than certain retained liabilities, it sets a baseline price that may result in superior bids under the Second SISP," per the Seventh Report of the Monitor, Apr. 1, 2025, para. 25.

One non-binding letter of intent arrived around the May 27, 2025 phase one deadline. The financial adviser — FTI Capital Advisors – Canada ULC, an affiliate of the monitor, working at hourly rates capped at US$135,000 a month with no success fee — extended the deadline to talk to the bidder and ask about its financing. On June 11 the mine, in consultation with the monitor, decided the letter did not qualify. "As the Second SISP did not result in any acceptable going-concern transactions for the Petitioner's assets, the Subscription Agreement was selected as the successful bid and the Second SISP was terminated," per the Eighth Report of the Monitor, June 30, 2025, paras. 18–20 and the Seventh Report of the Monitor, Apr. 1, 2025, paras. 18–19.