PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper miner Sandfire Resources has amended and extended its $452-million MATSA syndicated debt facility by two years, until the end of 2028, and has scheduled a lower repayment profile until the end of June 2025.
The ASX-listed miner on Thursday said that following unanimous approval by the international banking syndicate, the loan tenor of the MATSA facility had been extended following Sandfire’s first update to the ore reserve estimate for MATSA which was released in July of last year.
“Today’s extension of the $452-million MATSA finance facility highlights the confidence that our banking syndicate has in MATSA’s three mines and centralised processing facility and marks another important milestone for our business. We greatly appreciate the support of our international banking syndicate and the important role they play as we continue to transform Sandfire into a global copper producer of significance,” said MD and CEO Brendan Harris.
The MATSA facility, which was initially $650-million, formed an integral part of the funding package for the A$2.57-billion acquisition of the MATSA project. Within the first 12 months of Sandfire’s ownership, MATSA completed scheduled repayments totalling $198-million. The company said on Thursday that the revised amortisation profile for the remaining $452-million facility schedules repayments of $20-million, $46-million and $73-million for the June quarter of 2023, 2024 and 2025 respectively, against what was previously a heavily front-ended repayment profile.
In the meantime, the company intends to extend its copper forward hedging programme for MATSA by one year into mid-2026,targeting around 30% of scheduled payable production. The MATSA hedge book was originally set with a three-year horizon covering 30% to 40% of copper and zinc production, and the additional forward hedging position will restore that horizon for copper to over two-and-a-half years.