Romarco Minerals has signed a binding commitment letter with a consortium of lenders for a $200m debt facility to develop its Haile project in South Carolina, US.
The company signed the deal with lenders, including Caterpillar Financial Services, Macquarie Bank and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking.
Romarco Minerals president and CEO Diane R Garrett said: “We are pleased that the commitment is in-line with the project financing mandate agreement of $200m with no gold hedging requirements.
“As one of the lowest cost, highest grade open pit gold mines in the industry, Haile sits at the top end of the quality spectrum of gold assets having a positive feasibility study at $950 gold.
Haile is located in the Carolina Slate Belt between two previous gold operations: Ridgeway mine and Brewer mine.
Haile Gold Mine is estimated to have indicated gold resources of 71.2 million tonnes grading at 1.77g/t for four million ounces and inferred gold resources of 20.1 million tonnes grading at 1.24g/t for 800,000oz.
The company claims that the mine may have a proven and probable gold reserve of 30.5 million tonnes grading at 2.06g/t for 2 million ounces.
In October, Romarco Minerals received the record of decision (RoD) and permission for the project under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
Romarco Minerals estimates that $385m of funding is required to complete the project, which includes initial mine project capital, wetlands mitigation, reclamation bonding, working capital and other start-up costs