Antofagasta seals $1bn Esperanza funding

30th Jun 2009 07:04

Antofagasta has achieved financial closing and satisfaction of conditions to borrowing for $1.05bn of project financing for the Esperanza copper-gold project in Chile. The miner, which owns 70% of the project, said first disbursement is expected to take place during July. Construction started in the third quarter of 2008.Antofagasta and Marubeni Corp, which owns the other 30%, are funding the balance of the project's $2.3bn total estimated capital cost.Lenders include Japan Bank for International Cooperation and a consortium of banks, which are putting up $400m each. Export Development Canada has agreed $200m and KfW IPEX-Bank $50m. Esperanza, close to Antofagasta's El Tesoro mine, has a 16-year mine life based on proven and probable ore reserves of 583 million tonnes of copper, 0.223 g/tonnes gold and 0.010% molybdenum. Initial production of the commercial concentrate is due at the end of 2010, with about 714,000 tonnes of concentrates containing 191,000 tonnes of payable copper, 215,000 ounces of payable gold and 1,132,000 ounces of payable silver expected in the first ten years of operations.