Vancouver-based Ascot Resources is facing a potential further production delay at its Premier gold mine, in British Columbia, after a project financing hiccup. The company last year already pushed out its first gold-pour date to the first quarter of 2023, after key components were lost in transit.

Ascot said on Monday that it had begun looking for alternative financing options to replace a credit facility with Sprott Private Resource Lending II, explaining that the parties could not agree on drawdown conditions for the remaining $60-million of an $80-million facility. An initial $20-million had been drawn down.

“We have not been able to come to an agreement with Sprott on the satisfaction of the drawdown conditions for the remaining tranches of the senior facility, and therefore have prudently begun pursuing alternative financing options,” said CEO Derek White.

In a recent review of the mine plan, Sprott proposed certain conditions, including one that required Ascot to have a significant portion of its 12-month ore inventory classified in the proven reserve category. Currently, all reserves at PGP are classified as probable and the firm stated that it could not guarantee the reclassification in the required timeframe.

Ascot would be exploring royalty and or stream options at Premier as an additional source of funding.

White said that Ascot believed the project presented an attractive financing opportunity, given the significant derisking that had been achieved thus far.

The company would be using its current cash balance of C$90-million to continue advancing the project, including the start of underground development and other critical construction areas.

However, a delay of any work packages could result in delays to the overall project and the startup of production beyond the previous target of the first quarter of 2023. The impact of delays could potentially be partially offset by the ramp-up from initial production to commercial and full-scale production, which would be accelerated as underground development continued on schedule.

The Sprott facility formed part of the $105-million construction finance package that Ascot agreed for Premier in December 2020.