PERTH (miningweekly.com) - The construction of ASX- and TSX-listed Anvil Mining's Kinsevere Stage II copper project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), will be restarted by the fourth quarter, and is likely to start commercial production by the first half of 2011, CEO Bill Turner said on Friday.

Construction on the project was halted late last year, owing to a lack of funds and the drastic fall in copper prices experienced by the end of 2008.

However, the company had recently secured $200-million in funding from commodities trader Trafigura to cover the remaining capital requirements to complete the project.

Speaking at the Africa Downunder conference, held in Perth, Turner said that the financing package would be done on a one-half equity and one-half debt basis, and would be completed by the end of October.

He further noted that Anvil had already received government approval for the restart of the project, and was currently in discussions with the design and engineering firm, Ausenco, to negotiate the terms for the engineering, procurement and construction agreement for the construction of the remainder of the project.

Before construction of the project had been halted, about 80% had been completed, and Turner noted that the remainder of the construction would be fully funded by the Trafigura financing package.

On site work at Kinsevere Stage II would start before Christmas, while the main mobalisation would start in January. The project construction was likely to be completed before the end of 2010, and project ramp-up would take the project into the second half of 2011.

Turner also said that Anvil had signed a take-off agreement with Trafigura for the life-of-the mine.

The Kinsevere Stage II project has a probable and proven reserve of around 20,2-million tons, with a contained metal of around 770 000 t copper. Measured and indicated resources were estimated at around 9,6-million tons, with a grading of 3,7%. The project also had an inferred mineral resource of around 14,1-million tons, at a grading of 3,6%.