PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Excelsior Gold has drawn down the first funds from a A$4.5-million project loan facility secured from Macquarie Bank.

The facility is expected to partially refinance an existing A$4-million convertible loan, with Excelsior also using the call options premium generated from A$1 600 call options grant to retire the convertible loan.

Following the refinancing of the convertible loan, Excelsior will have A$3.18-million of undrawn funds under the Macquarie facility, leaving the gold miner with nearly A$7-million in available funds.

Macquarie was issued more than 43.4-million options in Excelsior, exercisable at 9.2c each, on or before the end of December, on the execution of the convertible loan documentation.

“The financial closure represents the continued recognition by Macquarie of the merits of the Kalgoorlie North gold project, as well as the various de-risking efforts successfully implemented by the company,”  MD David Hamlyn said on Monday.

“The attractiveness of the facility terms, compared to other funding alternatives, reflects the strong working relationship the company has established with Macquarie and the viability of the low capital cost project.”

Excelsior in December mobilised additional personnel to man a second mining fleet at the Kalgoorlie North gold project, to increase ore production.

The second mining fleet focused on the Castlereagh, Jackorite and Big Blow South openpits in response to a request from gold miner Norton Gold Fields for additional ore feed for its Paddington mill.

First ore from the Kalgoorlie North project was hauled to the Paddington mill in December last year, under an ore treatment agreement which will see Norton process between 500 000 t/y and 650 000 t/y of Kalgoorlie North ore, over the next five to ten years.

For the March quarter of this year, Norton has agreed to process as much Kalgoorlie North ore as could be delivered, and it is expected that the extra mining fleet could potentially allow Excelsior to provide about 190 000 t of ore over the three-month period.