JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Botswana-focused base-metals company African Copper plans to restart the Mowana mine, in Botswana, by the end of the month, it said on Friday,

The mine plans have been reviewed with senior managers of JSE-listed Zambian Copper Investments (ZCI), which owns a majority stake in African Copper.

The Aim-listed company placed its Mowana mine on care-and-maintenance in January pending the completion of funding negotiations.

The company said that it believed that the financing package entered into with ZCI would provide the necessary funding required for production to be restart at the Mowana mine.

The ZCI finance package comprises a secured bridging loan facility of $7-million, as well as a second secured $25,4-million bridging loan facility, bearing interest at a rate of 12% a year.

The package also included a share subscription by ZCI for 676,5-million new ordinary shares at an issue price of 1p a share, for gross proceeds of about $9,9-million. A four-year secured part convertible credit facility of $31,1-million, comprising a convertible tranche of S$8,3-million with a coupon of 12% a year and a tranche that is not convertible of $22,7-million with a coupon of 14% a year, was also included.

African Copper expects the ZCI shareholder approval of the loan facility to occur in September and security is expected to become effective during August.

“The directors have reasonable expectation that the convertible loan facility will be completed.”

African Copper reported a profit of £27,6-million in the six months ended June 30, compared with a loss of £2,6-million during the corresponding period of 2008.

Basic earnings a share increased to 9,34p a share, compared with a loss of 1,83p a share in 2008.

As at the end of June 2009, the company had £6-million in cash and cash equivalents, £0,7-million in other receivables and prepayments and £23-million due to ZCI.

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