[miningmx.com] — THE R1bn revolving credit facility arranged by Northam Platinum (Northam) with Nedbank provides enough funding to more than cover the current estimate on the full cost of the group’s new Booysendal mine.
The cost of Booysendal was revised in June last year from R3.1bn to R3.6bn, after completion of an optimisation study which looked at speeding up development of the mine and increasing its size.
Booysendal is now slated to produce its first concentrate in January 2013 instead of May that year as previously planned and ramp up to a design capacity of 187,500 t/month ROM (run of mine) compared with 150,000t/month previously.
Booysendal will produce 160,000oz of platinum group metals annually once steady-state production is reached at the new level.
As of end-June Northam had cash reserves of R1.7bn while a further R1.2bn is due from the sale of Booysendal South to Aquarius Platinum which intends mining that section of the deposit from its adjacent Everest South mine.
According to CEO Glyn Lewis the new debt facility “provides Northam additional financial flexibility and will ensure the group is fully funded in the medium-term to pursue its strategic priorities.’
The development of Booysendal started in July 2010 and steady-state production should be achieved in February 2014.
