Base metals explorer and developer Amur Minerals on Wednesday outlined its strategy to fund the bankable feasibility study (BFS) for its Kun-Manie nickel/copper sulphide project, in the far east of Russia.

The company would execute a “tried and proven” funding strategy, board adviser Adam Habib said in a statement, explaining that it planned to put in place a binding offtake agreement and, with the support of the offtaker, raise sufficient funding to complete the BFS.

It is envisaged that the funding would be principally through debt, with a further component funded through equity and/or a supporting investment from an offtake partner.

Amur would also seek to invest in revenue-generating assets through corporate activity to strengthen its balance sheet and financial position.

“The company is now moving swiftly down this route to execution of its strategy,” said Habib.

The purpose of a BFS is to provide the technical, environmental and economic detail of the project to give institutional investors' confidence to proceed with the project financing necessary to advance Kun-Manie through construction and into production.

The company released its prefeasibility study (PFS) in February 2019, ahead of the commencement of the permanent conditions, or TEO.

Amur earlier this month received nonbinding indicative offtake terms for both the nickel and copper concentrates at Kun-Manie. This is a TEO requirement for establishing that a marketable product can be generated.

"Significant progress has been achieved on the TEO, and we are on track to complete this for December 2020. Beyond this, our next major milestone is the BFS which is a substantive body of work. As the company started planning for the BFS, it was equally important that we plan for the future funding requirements. The addition of Adam Habib to the team has added to our capability to market the Kun-Manie project to a wider pool of financing sources who have an interest funding projects through to completion of a BFS," said CEO Robin Young.

The 2019 PFS covers two production scenarios for a mining production rate of six-million tons a year. The first option is the toll smelt option, which provides the swiftest path to revenue generation, where the concentrate is sold to a purchaser. The second option is where the company constructs and operates an electric furnace/flash smelter, converting the concentrate to a low-grade matte, which allows for the capture of additional revenues from the by-product metals of copper, cobalt, platinum and palladium.

Kun-Manie has a resource of 55.1-million tonnes of ore, comprising a nickel equivalent grade of 1.02%, equating to 1.58-million equivalent tonnes of nickel.