JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed Alphamin Resources is working to jump the final funding hurdle for its Bisie tin project, in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, through a secondary inward listing on the AltX of the JSE.
The exploration and development company has already raised or secured commitment for about $140-million, including a new $80-million credit facility and a prior $22.3-milion equity fundraising, of the $172.1-million peak funding required to build the significant tin project.
South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation has committed to investing $13.7-million at the project level, while existing major shareholder Tremont Master committed to investing $24.7-million in Alphamin’s proposed R56.1-million private placement.
With 81.4% of the total capital now secure, Alphamin is now aiming to raise a portion of the final $31.4-million required to build the Alphamin Bisie Mine (ABM) project through the AltX listing and final equity raising by the end of the year.
“We are now going to raise the final bit of equity [through a private placement] to get us over the line,” CEO Boris Kamstra told media during a briefing on Tuesday, noting that it was expected that at least $10-million could initially be raised, excluding Tremont’s commitment.
In July, the company raised $22.3-million, and on Monday, it obtained project debt funding of $80-million in a definitive credit agreement with Sprott Private Resource Lending, Barak Fund and Tremont for a senior secured, nonrevolving, five-year term credit facility.
DEVELOPMENT UPDATES
The development of what Kamstra believes is the most significant tin deposit in the world has come a long way over the past four years, mitigating significant social, political and geographical challenges against a backdrop of historical political upheaval, rent-seeking, an established heavy artisanal mining industry and a lack of infrastructure.
However, the company was confident that the riskiest aspects of the project were now behind it, with the last of the artisanal miners set to exit the region by January, the access roads and key infrastructure now in place and the mine’s construction well under way.
ABM completed the boxcut for the underground portal and had progressed the decline nearly 60 m underground and advancing into hard rock.
The access road between the Walikale–Kisangani road route and ABM had also been opened, enabling trucks to make regular deliveries of material and equipment to the mine.
The construction and inauguration of the Lukaa school near Logu had also been completed.
The ABM project remains on schedule for commissioning early in 2019 and steady-state production before the end of 2019.
Under Alphamin’s control budget estimate, the net present value of the ABM project is $402.2-million and the real, after-tax internal rate of return is 49.1%.
The estimate is based on a long-term, real tin price of $21 400/t, while the International Tin Research Institute had forecast a long-run equilibrium price of $25 000/t.