Photo Credit: Geopacific Resources Ltd
Geopacific Resources Ltd has received funding of AU$100 million (K257.5 million) for the construction of its gold and silver mine on Woodlark Island in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
Chairman Ian Clyne stated that the money will come from a loan facility.
He expressed gratitude to the Mineral Resources Authority for assisting in the successful development of the Woodlark Island gold mine.
He said that it allowed Geopacific Resources to obtain "complete finance" to begin development, with the goal of pouring the first gold next year.
According to Clyne, the Kula Gold legacy of huge losses for international investors meant that there was less demand for the Woodlark Project in particular.
Despite substantial marketing efforts to banks and speciality industry lenders, loan demand remained severely restricted.
The international worry about PNG's political danger was a key issue.
The effective and timely implementation of an agreement, according to Clyne, is a key confidence builder for foreign investors.
“The professionalism of the PNG Government teams was a major factor,” he said.
“This was an extremely difficult project to get funded, especially given the PNG/BSP perspective of historic international investor and lender appetite.”
Jerry Garry, MRA's managing director, praised Geopacific for securing finance for the project's development.
This, he added, indicated that investors have faith in the country's extractive industry.
Following MRA's intervention, Garry noticed that Geopacific Resources had upgraded its dwelling plans for the relocation exercise.
“To raise AU$140 million (K54.3mil) in new equity in Dec/Jan and to recently close out the AU$100 million (K257.7mil) debt facility was the result of a massive amount of extremely professional work by Tim Richards (Geopacific Resources Ltd chief executive officer) and his team and with the board’s backing, in building international financial market’s confidence,” Garry said.
Reference:
Pacific Mining Watch. “Geopacific secures K257 million for Gold and Silver mine project in PNG”.
