Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel developer Poseidon Nickel has extended the terms of an A$8-million loan facility with the Minderoo Foundation, which was founded by mining heavyweight Andrew Forrest.
The current loan period was set to expire on October 1, but Poseidon reported on Wednesday that the repayment date had been extended until April 1, 2015.
The nickel developer said the extended repayment period would give the company additional flexibility around the proposed development of its Windarra, Black Swan and Lake Johnston nickel projects, in Western Australia.
Poseidon would provide security over the loan in exchange for the extension.
In 2012, Forrest personally backed a A$20-million rights issue by ASX-listed Poseidon, fully underwriting the offer through Forrest Family Investments.
Forrest Family Investments also provided Poseidon with an unsecured bridge loan of A$80-million to fund technical and funding activities while it raised cash to bring its Windarra nickel project, in Western Australia, to production.
Forrest stepped down from his role as Poseidon’s chairperson in September last year.
Poseidon recently completed an acquisition spree, adding the Norilsk-owned Black Swan and Lake Johnston projects to its portfolio. The acquisition of Black Swan was expected to save Poseidon about A$240-million in development costs for the Windarra operation, by processing ore from the mine at the Black Swan plant.
The combined Black Swan and Mt Windarra capital cost requirements have now been estimated at only A$28.4-million, with the total funding requirement being only around A$50-million, including all transaction fees, holding costs of Black Swan, contingencies and working capital.