Voluntary administration is a first step towards declaring bankruptcy.
The spill poisoned rivers in northwestern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, killing millons of fish and other wildlife. A spokesman for Australian administrators Hall Chadwick Chartered Accountants told the BBC on Thursday that no claims have been filed after 100,000 cubic metres of water contaminated with cyanide spilled into the Tisza and Danube river systems January 30. But the Hungarian government announced today that it will sue Esmeralda and the Romanian state mining company Remin - each 50 percent partners in the Baia Mare mine. Remin, in northwest Romania, admitted it polluted the Tisza River with toxic zinc, lead and copper twice after severe weather last week and then again on Monday. But Esmeralda has repeatedly denied responsibility for the cyanide spill.