VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – West African gold producer Aureus Mining has received final credit approval from its group lenders to defer the first debt repayment, which is due on January 31.
FirstRand Bank, acting through its Rand Merchant Bank division; Nedbank and the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa, had agreed to renegotiate an appropriate debt repayment schedule with the mine, after it last week reported that it had run into last-minute commissioning trouble with the gravity and carbon-in-leach circuits of the New Liberty mine’s plant, in Liberia, resulting in a decision to defer declaring commercial production, despite having achieved the required criteria.
The company was experiencing problems related to plant recoveries, resulting in lower cash flows.
Aureus expected that revenue generated from future gold output would ensure that suppliers continued to get paid and that operations could continue at New Liberty.
Aureus advised that the lenders would review various mine plan scenarios, with the aim of choosing a final mine plan by the end of February.