Canada-based Eldorado Gold has entered into a mandate letter with Greek banks for a credit-committee-approved €680-million project finance facility for the development of the Skouries project, in northern Greece.
“The mandate letter represents an important step towards the re-start of construction at Skouries,” said president and CEO George Burns.
He said Eldorado remained confident in the feasibility study capital cost estimate of $845-million. With the project finance facility in place, the company has the balance sheet capacity to fund the remaining capital cost for completion of the project.
“We also continue to evaluate opportunities for complementary sources of financing. A final decision to re-start construction remains subject to board approval, which we expect to seek in the second half of 2022.”
The Skouries project, part of the Kassandra Mines Complex, is located within the Halkidiki Peninsula of northern Greece. It is a gold/copper porphyry deposit to be mined using a combination of conventional openpit and underground mining techniques.
Based on the feasibility study, the total life-of-mine is about 20 years, and it is expected to produce, on average, 140 000 oz/y of gold and 67-million pounds of copper a year.
From first production, the payback period of the project is less than four years, and it is expected to generate, on average, $215-million of free cash flow a year for the first five years of operations.