PERTH (mininingweekly.com) – Copper developer Tiger Resources on Thursday announced that FirstRand Bank was ready to move ahead with a $30-million bridging facility after the bank confirmed internal credit approval.
The bridging facility was being jointly arranged by FirstRand Bank, through its Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) division, and Nedbank.
The two banks were arranging an $80-million debt financing facility to the operator of the Kipoi copper project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in which Tiger held a 60% interest.
The facility was designed to partly fund the development of the Stage 2 solvent extraction electrowinning plant.
Tiger said on Thursday that the bridging facility would be available to supplement cash flow from the existing Stage 1 heavy media separation operation, which was being used to finance ongoing construction of the Stage 2 plant.
The banks were jointly undertaking extensive due diligence as part of their credit-approval processes.
“The banks want to be sure that the Kipoi project stands up to stringent technical, legal and economic scrutiny prior to them committing funding,” said Tiger MD Brad Marwood.
“In this way, they can be confident that there are no impediments to the Export Credit Insurance Corporation term facility proceeding to final close, and the $30-million bridging facility being repaid.”
RMB’s approval meant that it was now in a position to provide $15-million of the bridging facility amount, once standard financing conditions were met.
The balance of the bridging facility remained subject to Nedbank Capital’s credit process.