Vancouver – International conglomerate Mitsubishi Materials has secured US$322 million in project financing for the Copper Mountain copper project in southwest British Columbia.
Mitsubishi holds a 25% interest in the project after buying into it last year, while Copper Mountain Mining (CUM-T, COQ-F) controls the rest. Along with a $28.8 million buy-in, Mitsubishi had agreed to “use commercially reasonable efforts” to arrange a $250 million project loan, and to buy all the copper concentrate from the mine.
The company seems now to have more-than-fulfilled the project loan requirement. A consortium of senior lenders including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Mizuho Corporate Bank have committed to provide a US$162-million senior credit agreement, while the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the international arm of Japan Finance Corporation have committed to provide a further US$160 million in the form of a term loan.
Copper Mountain, meanwhile, recently completed a $34.5 million financing to fulfill its working capital commitments. The company issued 11.3 million shares at $3.05 in a bough-deal financing.
The Copper Mountain project, located outside Princeton and roughly 270 km east of Vancouver, is proceeding on schedule. The historic mine is expected to return to production in mid-2011 with a 35,000 tonne per day copper concentrator.
The deposit’s reserves total 211 million tonnes grading 0.36% copper for 1.7 billion contained lbs. of copper. The company expects to spend $438 million to reopen the mine.
Copper Mountain’s share price jumped 31¢ or 7.8% on the news to close at $2.78 with 90 million shares outstanding.
Be the first to comment on "US$322 million secured for Copper Mountain"