PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths developer Arafura Rare Earths has appointed specialist financier KfW IPEX-Bank as an additional mandated lead arranger and bookrunner (MLA) to arrange debt financing for the A$1.39-billion Nolans neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) project, in the Northern Territory.

KfW will work in conjunction with Société Générale and National Australia Bank who were appointed as initial MLAs to arrange the debt financing facility for the project.

The mandate with KfW includes an indicative commitment to provide up to $75-million of commercial debt financing to the Nolans project in addition to the funding being sought with the initial MLAs. The limited recourse debt financing package is intended to comprise commercial bank facilities provided by the MLAs, Export Credit Agency (ECA) covered finance and, to the extent required, further financing through additional MLA banks or through a syndication process.

“The appointment of KfW to join the MLA group and provide ECA structuring advice represents an important milestone in the Company’s progress on its project financing activities,” Arafura MD Gavin Lockyer said.

“The MLAs have significant international and domestic experience and a large global network, giving the company increasing confidence in executing its offtake and project funding strategy. The criticality of diversified supply chain security in the global push for energy transition shows strong alignment of the Nolans project with the mandates of project financiers and offtake partners alike.”

In addition to the finance being arranged by the MLA’s, Arafura has received letters of support from both Export Finance Australia and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for A$200-million and A$100-million in senior debt facilities respectively, and has been awarded a A$30-million in grant funding under the federal government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiatives, and have accepted commitments to raise A$121-million under a share placement priced at 37c a share.