The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that Thompson Creek is nearing an "end game," as Credit Suisse analyst Jorge Beristain recently put it. The Post's Peter Koven writes that Thompson Creek has more than $800-million (U.S.) of debt maturing between 2017 and 2019, including more than $300-million (U.S.) next year. The miner may try to pull off a massively dilutive equity offering. However, in all likelihood, says Mr. Koven, the future of Thompson Creek will be determined by its lenders and by Royal Gold, which owns a gold stream on the company's Mount Milligan mine. As one base metals mining executive after another took the stage last week at a TD mining conference in Toronto, they knew almost everyone in the audience had the same question: What are you going to do about the balance sheet? For the moment, it is the only topic that matters. The crash in copper, nickel and zinc prices, which began in 2011 but picked up steam in the past eight months, has torn into miners' revenues and raised serious concerns about their ability to repay debt. Debt-reduction plans will be the focus when miners start reporting year-end earnings this month. Thompson Creek closed Friday at 35 cents, up five cents.