Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 03/99) - Giant mine owner Royal Oak has again failed to make an interest payment to Trilon Financial Corp., Trilon President George Myhal said yesterday.

It's the second default in as many months.

Royal Oak owes Trilon $182.4 million and about $3.6 million interest. Despite the second default, Trilon has "agreed to take no action" at this time, Myhal said.

"They've (Royal Oak) asked us to wait while they restructure (their other debt) but we are certainly not prepared to wait forever."

Myhal also said if any other creditors were pressing Royal Oak, Trilon would know about it because of an inter-creditor agreement. Under the agreement, one creditor cannot take action without informing other creditors.

It is likely other creditors are waiting to see what Trilon will do.

If Royal Oak goes under, Trilon gets first crack at ownership of Royal Oak's Kemess South gold-copper mine in B.C.

"We want to give (Royal Oak) every chance to restructure. We believe Kemess is an excellent mine capable of creating solid value and significant cash flow," Myhal said.

"The mine is our security. We want to make sure the mine's being properly run. We have every indication that it is."

Trilon is 65 per cent-owned by the EdperBrascan Corporation.

EdperBrascan, one of Canada's largest conglomerates, owns 50 per cent of Falconbridge and 40 per cent of Noranda.

EdperBrascan's other interests include 93 per cent of Great Lakes Power and 40 per cent of Canadian Hunter Exploration.

Among Trilon's directors is Hollinger Inc. Chairman and CEO Conrad Black.

The EdperBrascan group employs over 50,000 people, many of them in Canada.