JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Year-end holidays have further delayed the finalisation of an alternative funding proposal for the development of the Boikarabelo coal mine, in the Waterberg region, JSE- and ASX-listed Resource Generation (Resgen) said on Thursday.
Resgen has been working to secure an alternative funding source that is not linked to committed domestic coal supply, with initial expectations that the relevant lenders’ credit approval processes and signed terms sheets would have been concluded by September 2017.
This had been further delayed to November 2017, and again over the December period.
“Although the proposed lenders have completed their due diligence investigations and credit submissions, one of the lenders was unable to fix meetings of its credit committee owing to the intervention of the year-end holidays,” Resgen said in its quarterly update to shareholders.
Resgen was unable to “forecast with any certainty” the outcome of the credit approval process and when any signed terms sheets will be received.
However, the company is undertaking its own internal planning on milestones being achieved by the end of February or early in March.
The proposed funding facility under negotiation is intended to provide all funds required to complete the construction of the mine to the point of commissioning, but does not include the costs of building the required rail link.
Negotiations for the R650-million funding for the rail link is also being progressed with a number of interested undisclosed parties.