Junior Tenke Mining (TNK-T) will borrow US$127 million from Investec Bank of South Africa for the first phase of development work at the Tenke Fungurume copper-Cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The remainder of the US$390 million required for phase one will be arranged through new equity and debt financing. Tenke expects to complete all financing requirements by June 1998, while maintaining a debt-To-equity ratio of 40-To-60.
The company owns more than half of the Tenke-Fungurume concessions in the southeastern highlands of the country, formerly known as Zaire. The government controls the remainder.
New President Laurent Kabila, who assumed power after a 7-Month civil war, has promised to respect the terms of Tenke’s joint venture.
Upon completion of a US$15-Million feasibility study, the company will begin engineering, procurement and construction. Initial production is anticipated at 100,000 tonnes of copper and 8,000 tonnes of cobalt per year, beginning in early 2000.
The 1,437-sq.-km project hosts total resources of 222 million tonnes grading 4.42% copper and 0.33% cobalt, based on a cutoff grade of 1% copper-equivalent. Included in the estimate are proven minable reserves of 92.6 million tonnes grading 4.59% copper and 0.36% cobalt.
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