TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian palladium producer North American Palladium (NAP) has secured two financings and has extended a line of credit to fund the progressing expansion of its Lac des Iles (LDI) mine, in Ontario.
The company on Friday said it had closed a $130-million term loan financing with investor Brookfield Capital Partners that bore a coupon rate of 15% and was due on June 7, 2017.
NAP planned to use the net proceeds from the debt financing to pay and satisfy, in full, the existing $72-million senior secured notes due on October 4, 2014, including the redemption of the premium related thereto, to fund capital expenditures at the LDI mine and for general corporate purposes.
Further, the company had entered into a subscription agreement for a fully subscribed private placement of flow-through shares for total gross proceeds of about $20-million.
All of the proceeds from the flow-through offering would be used for mine expansion expenditures and for exploration activities at the mine and property.
The company had also extended its $60-million revolving operating line of credit by a year to July 4, 2014.
In late 2010, NAP started the significant expansion of its LDI mine to increase underground production and reduce cash costs per ounce. The mine expansion consists of transitioning underground operations to shaft access mining, while using a high-volume bulk mining method. As of March 31, NAP had invested about $328.2-million in the expansion.