The St. Lawrence fluorspar mine has a pulse again with the selection of another company that wants to restart the operation.

Things looked grim in October when the successful bidder failed to meet payment deadlines.

That forced the mine from warm to cold idle, and saw the layoff of more employees, on top of the 200-plus out of work since the shutdown a year ago, when Canada Fluorspar ran out of money.

And while there has been other interest to restart it, there have also been offers to shut it down and sell the assets.

But the court-appointed monitor noted while creditors will get little from the sale, a re-start of the business, and the jobs that come with it, can benefit everyone.

That includes the provincial government, which is in for about $20 million.

Fluorspar is in demand worldwide but efficiently getting it to markets from the mine has proven to be a challenge.

The latest group to give it a go, and details of their successful bid, are sealed as lawyers try again to close the sale.

The court also granted more time to do that—this time by the end of May.