A member of the consortium designated as the preferred bidder for the Liberty Bell Bay manganese smelter has effectively pulled out, with workers told administrators have until Monday to secure alternative funding.Liberty Bell Bay, in northern Tasmania, was placed into administration in March, and late last month the administrators EY Parthenon announced the preferred bidder — a consortium including Perth-based Adroit Capital, ASX-listed OM Holdings and White Oak, a US private equity firm that was a secured lender to former parent Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance.A town hall meeting in George Town on Friday morning was attended by EY Parthenon administrator Morgan Kelly, Liberty Bell Bay workers and Federal Labor member for Bass, Jess Teesdale.Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one worker who was present told the ABC that administrator Morgan Kelly had told this morning's meeting that Adroit Capital had not been able to come up with their portion of the funding and had effectively "pulled out of the consortium"."If they can't find someone to replace, fill that capital funding hole, there will be the closure of Liberty Bell Bay," the worker said."So, we've got another meeting lunchtime on Monday, and they'll be announcing then if they've got the funding and things are going ahead or if the [smelter] will be closing down."Urgent discussions to secure fundingThe worker said Mr Kelly told workers that EY Parthenon was returning to the other parties who had expressed interest in taking over Liberty Bell Bay, to see whether they would join the consortium.However, he said Mr Kelly was "very non-committal" about the prospect of further funding."He said that they're hoping for the best, but they just don't want to get our hopes up," the worker said.In a statement from EY this morning, Mr Kelly said:"We recognise this further uncertainty for employees, their families and the wider Bell Bay community is difficult, and we are working to provide clarity as quickly as possible."EY Parthenon confirmed difficulties had arisen with "a number of critical financing, supplier and government arrangements".When the preferred consortium was announced in late May, the federal and state governments had contributed a further $5 million in public funding to secure the 216-strong workforce at Liberty Bell Bay, which has been under care and maintenance for more than a year.Total government assistance since Liberty Bell Bay went into administration now totals $15 million.In a statement, EY Parthenon said a condition of the funding was the consortium providing funding for non-workforce operating costs "to enable accelerated confirmatory due diligence and completion of the proposed acquisition"."In the absence of both a commercially viable transaction and the funding required to continue operations, the company is in the process of consulting with employees regarding their future employment," EY Parthenon said."Urgent discussions are underway to secure further funding, to enable an alternate pathway to be pursued."Australian Workers Union Tasmanian assistant secretary Robert Flanagan said the likelihood of funding being secured would depend on "how things go over the next three days"."It was clear that there was a lot of work the administrator had to do to try and find a way forward and that he would update us on Monday about how that was going," Mr Flanagan said.He said it was unclear what had caused difficulties in the sale process, but workers were "very concerned" about whether or not a sale could be made."All that we know is that they were having difficulties finalising the sale process with Adroit and it seemed to be implicit that funding was a part of that," he said."Two weeks ago, we believed we had a pathway back to normal operations at Bell Bay, so the advice that the sale has not been able to be finalised has come as a very significant shock to the workforce," he said.Federal Labor member for Bass Jess Teesdale said she was working to secure federal funding to cover the cost of worker's wages and keep the smelter open while a new buyer was secured.Adroit Capital, White Oak, state and federal government representatives have been approached for comment.