PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The administrators of embattled Queensland Nickel are looking for a saviour to invest “tens of millions of dollars” to keep the company afloat past April this year.

FTI Consulting’s John Park told a teleconference on Friday that the company owed more than A$100-million to creditors and Queensland Nickel staff, of which nearly A$16-million worth of entitlements were due to the 237 employees made redundant earlier this month, before the company went into administration.

Park pointed out that at the current nickel prices, Queensland Nickel was expected to trade at a loss of some $30-million in 2016, with production expected to reach 60-million pounds of nickel.

He added that with its current bank balance, administrators could keep operations going for at least another two months.

“We’ve an ability to trade the business the next one to two months, based on nothing unforeseen happening. During that timeframe, we will be working with different stakeholders to formulate a restructuring proposal for the business, or a deed of company arrangement,” Park said.

Queensland Nickel founder Clive Palmer had previously expressed interest to participate in a deed of company arrangement, in order to avoid the liquidation of the nickel company.

In 2015, Palmer awarded Queensland Nickel the ability to borrow against coal tenements held by some of his other companies, including Warratah Coal and First China, in exchange for A$135-million in two equal payments.

Park said that while administrators were considering Palmer’s offer, it was not an “overnight solution”.

In the meantime, the administrators had also been approached by domestic and international entities that had expressed interest in acquiring the business, Park said.

Meanwhile, Queensland Nickel MD Clive Mensink on Friday defended the operations of the company, saying that the only reason for the administration was the fall in the nickel price, which was the lowest in 15 years.

“During the weeks prior to the redundancies, the Queensland Nickel management team was working on plans to further improve our existing operations and identify how Queensland Nickel could keep the maximum number of people employed in this low nickel price environment. Various options and cash flow models were considered and Queensland Nickel actively sought financial assistance, which was looking positive.”

“We recently celebrated 40 years in operation in Townsville and I firmly believe Queensland Nickel is capable of operating for another 40 years. Queensland Nickel can emerge from this administration as a stronger company,” Mensink said.