Searles Valley Minerals Inc. (SVM) is in the opening weeks of a Delaware chapter 11 case structured around an expedited section 363 sale of its Trona, California minerals complex, with bidding procedures, final DIP/cash-collateral approval, and railcar-lease rejection all calendared for a July 7, 2026 omnibus hearing before Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon. The debtor—a borate, sodium sulfate, and salt producer wholly owned by Karnavati Holdings, Inc. (a Nirma Limited affiliate)—filed its voluntary petitionDkt. 1 on June 15, 2026 after the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes, sustained soda ash market volatility, and a roughly $71 million fiscal-year 2026 loss forced the February 2026 mothballing of its soda ash operations, according to the Frankum First Day DeclarationDkt. 17.
SVM entered bankruptcy carrying approximately $220.7 million of funded debt—about $85.5 million of HSBC secured debt and $135.2 million of unsecured parent loans—alongside roughly $76 million in environmental liabilities owed to California's Cap-And-Trade Program. Liquidity rests on a $20 million Parent Junior DIP facility from Karnavati Holdings, approved on an interim basis, paired with a separate $20 million TATA Chemicals soda ash supply and liquidity arrangement. After an unsuccessful prepetition marketing process run by Lazard, the debtor is pursuing a court-supervised sale under the Sale Bidding Procedures MotionDkt. 77, targeting an August 6 bid deadline, an August 13 auction, and an August 20 sale hearing.
The July 7 omnibus hearing will also consider rejection of unexpired railcar leases tied to the idled soda ash operations, projected to save roughly $425,000 per month under the Railcar Lease Rejection MotionDkt. 78, and the section 341 meeting of creditors is set for July 23, 2026 341 Meeting Scheduling NoticeDkt. 88.
