An Australian company has expressed an interest in buying the Wolverine Mine from the financially strapped Yukon Zinc Corp.

MinQuest announced Thursday it has submitted a conditional non-binding offer for the purchase of the assets.

The offer will remain confidential until it becomes unconditional, MinQuest said in its announcement.

“MinQuest’s offer for the Wolverine mine and associated infrastructure is conditional upon MinQuest securing the finances to complete the asset purchase, by 10 August, 2015,” says the announcement.

“MinQuest is in discussions with a number of potential financiers who have expressed interest in presenting a term sheet for financing the acquisition of the Wolverine zinc mine.”

MinQuest said that buying the assets will allow the company to use the existing mill and other infrastructure at the Wolverine Mine to advance its plans to begin mining its Fyre Lake copper project 28 kilometres to the east of the Wolverine deposit.

Yukon Zinc halted production at the Wolverine Mine and put the property in a care and maintenance mode last January because it could no longer afford to operate it. It sought and received B.C. Supreme Court protection from creditors in March.

Yukon Zinc has been working with the court-appointed creditor PricewaterhouseCoopers to secure additional investment in the mine or sell the assets.

In its latest report to the court on June 26, PricewaterhouseCoopers indicated there is interest in purchasing the Wolverine Mine from several parties.

It also indicated the mine’s Chinese parent company was discussing the possibility of providing additional financing to restructure the Wolverine Mine project.

The mine lost in excess of $50 million in each of the three years after it achieved commercial production in 2012, according to court documents.

Court protection from creditors was extended at the June hearing to Aug. 31.

The Wolverine Mine owes $647 million, of which $595 million is owed to its parent company.

More than 40 Yukon companies are owed $4.2 million.

MinQuest is a publicly traded company listed on the Australian stock exchange.

The company is in discussions with PricewaterhouseCoopers to finalize an Asset Purchase Agreement, it announced last Thursday.

MinQuest indicated using the Wolverine Mine site to process ore from the Fyre Lake project would require a 40-kilometre haul road.

“If MinQuest is successful with its bid to purchase Wolverine, MinQuest will become responsible for the environmental liabilities associated with the Wolverine Mine site,” says the announcement.

“MinQuest has assessed these environmental liabilities and has concluded that they are no more onerous than the liabilities incurred if a stand-alone project was developed at Fyre Lake.”

If MinQuest does purchase the assets, it would save the company between $150 million and $200 million in startup costs for the Fyre Lake project, the company indicated.

It’s not clear in the announcement if MinQuest intends to continue mining the Wolverine property, or if it’s purely after the assets which include the mineral deposit and associated mineral claims.