Perpetua secures $400M financing for Stibnite Gold 

Perpetua Resources (TSX, Nasdaq: PPTA) has secured $400 million (C$544.78 million) in investments to help advance its Stibnite Gold project in central Idaho, among several chosen for fast-tracking by the Trump administration, while other critical mineral developments came together in the western state.

The company entered into an agreement with National Bank of Canada Financial Markets and BMO Capital Markets, on behalf of themselves and a syndicate of underwriters who have agreed to purchase 22,728,000 common shares of the company for $13.20 each, Perpetua said Wednesday. It also reached a deal with Paulson & Co. to buy $100 million of common shares.

The investment is in conjunction with the application for up to $2 billion in project financing submitted to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) in May. Last month, Perpetua also obtained its final federal approval to progress the project towards construction.

Antimony mother lode 

The Stibnite project, with its recently secured record of decision from the US Forest Service, is uniquely positioned to supply the critical mineral antimony, which is essential to national security and energy technology, the company said.

The Stibnite project holds antimony reserves estimated at 148 million lb. — the only identified antimony reserve in the U.S. and one of the largest reserves outside of Chinese control. Once in production, it could meet about 35% of U.S. antimony demand during its initial six years of production, according to a 2023 commodity summary by the United States Geological Survey.

Combined with the EXIM debt financing and royalty financing the company believes that the net proceeds from the offering and the private placement will provide it with enough capital to fund the project construction costs of $2.2 billion, along with additional funds for cost overruns and exploration activities.

The company said it expects the remaining state permits required to commence construction to be issued by the relevant agencies this summer.

Critical mineral tailwinds

Meanwhile, U.S. Critical Materials (US-OTC: USCMF) and the Idaho National Laboratory on Wednesday announced the construction of a pilot-scale processing plant for rare earths in the state’s east. The facility is designed to process 1–2 tons (0.9 to 1.8 tonnes) of high-grade ore per day—sourced from U.S. Critical Materials’ Sheep Creek deposit in Montana. That project hosts such rare earths as neodymium, praseodymium, niobium, strontium, samarium, scandium and heavy rare earths such as gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium.

Only one rare earths processing plant is fully operational in the U.S. —MP Materials’ (NYSE: MP) facility at Mountain Pass, Calif., while  Energy Fuels (NYSE-A: UUUU; TSX: EFR) is producing separated neodymium-praseodymium at its White Mesa mill in Utah. 

Perpetua Resources stock was trading flat at market close in New York, but was down 9.8% in after-hours trading. The company has a $1.1 billion market capitalization.