Cupric Canyon Capital, the owners of the Khoemacau Copper Silver Project, said it has raised funding that will be used towards the advancement of their mine in Botswana.

The company revealed in a filing that a US$565 million project funding package to commence development of its high-quality Khoemacau copper silver underground mining project has been signed. The funding includes US$275 million senior debt facility from Red Kite Mine Finance, a US$265 million silver stream from RGLD Gold AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Gold, Inc.  and a US$25 million subordinated debt facility from RG AG.

“Securing the Project Funding Package by partnering with two of the industry’s leading global providers of mine finance, Royal Gold and Red Kite, allows us to move forward energetically with all project development activities,” Cupric CEO, Johan Ferreira said.

“This step marks the completion of a remarkable evolution of the company from discovery of Zone 5 in 2012 to full construction of a high-quality copper asset in 2019. Being able to commence the development of a large scale fully mechanised mine and deliver high-quality jobs and sustainable development in the Kalahari Copper Belt reflects, not only the quality of the mining environment in Botswana, but also the strong support of Government towards foreign investment and new mine development.”

The Project Funding Package will be used for construction of the company’s 3.6 million tonne per annum Starter Project at Khoemacau processing ore from the 91 million tonne resource1 at a head grade of 2.02% copper and 21.4g/t silver copper.  The direct construction cost of the Starter Project is US$397 million over a two-year construction timeline. First copper concentrate production is expected in the first half of 2021, with initial annual production averaging 62,000 tonnes copper and 1.9 million ounces of silver.

The company has been developing the Khoemacau Project, a 4,040 square kilometre land package in northwest Botswana, over the past 6 years. One of the numerous deposits within the Khoemacau Project, Zone 5, was initially discovered in 2012 and has since become the flagship deposit since it was acquired by the company in 2013. Since then, the Company has drilled 285,000 metres, completed permitting and land access agreements, secured the required power and water, and undertaken advanced engineering, procurement and mobilisation such that it is ready for full construction of the Starter Project, pending closing of the Project Funding Package.