IRC Ltd, the iron ore unit of Russian miner Petropavlovsk Group of Companies (Petropavlovsk), has announced that it has secured a $340 million loan facility from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to fund construction of stage 1 of its mining operations at the Kimkan and Sutara (K&S) project located near the Chinese border.
Accordingly, with the receipt of the ICBC facility and the HKD 1.72 billion ($221 million) raised by the company in its Hong Kong listing in October 2010, IRC will now be fully funded for the development of K&S stage 1 through to expected initial production in 2013.
Interest under the facility will be charged at an annual 2.8 percent above the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), and is repayable over 11 years.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, announced on December 6, 2010, IRC has entered into the $400 million engineering procurement and construction contract with China National Electric Engineering Corporation for the construction of stage 1 of K&S, which is expected to commence in January 2011. The successful commissioning of the plant at IRC's K&S iron ore deposit will bring 3.22 million mt of ore concentrate per year on stream.