Whyalla

But inhabitants of the small Australian steel town of Whyalla tipped scientists off in the late 1990s that cuttlefish were swarming on the coast.

In Australia, GFG owns the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia, and the nearby iron ore mines which feed it.

The London branch of Citibank lodged an application on Tuesday to wind up OneSteel Manufacturing, which includes the Whyalla steel plant in South Australia, and Tahmoor Coal, which includes a coal mine in New South Wales, according to the court.

About 5,000 people work for GFG Group’s British Steel and about 1,000 are directly employed by the South Australian mill, but thousands more are dependent on it either as contractors or suppliers and it underpins the economy of the entire town of Whyalla.

More than 35,000 jobs, including thousands at steel mills in Britain and at Whyalla in South Australia, are at risk as GFG Group, the conglomerate controlled by British entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta, races to refinance about $4bn owed to failed finance company Greensill.