Export Credit agency financing - how does it work?, page-7

As @jm3767 as noted, ECA can be act as guarantor or much more.

Here's a reference doc done by PWC ... so its a bit "Australia focused" but it does have examples in it such as Roy Hill Iron Ore mine (pg 21) - which I highlight because Francis Wedin used it as an example.
https://www.pwc.com.au/energy-transition/papers/10-export-credit-agency-financing.pdf

Here's a really long answer

Francis explained ECA (and more) as follows during CR earlier in the year:
(the formatting is mine for highlighting)

(FW) Well I'll start off with that export thing because I think it is important. There's an analog in Australia as well. Roy Hill did their financing with BNP as well and they did it in exactly the same way. They went out and secured ECA backing - export credit agency backing and that is government money - and then that gave the commercial banks the confidence to come in and back the deal.

(LL) Did they give you like a letter of credit? Is that kind of how it works? Is it like they won't default - how do those export agencies work?

(FW) So, it's government money. Essentially, if it's in the “national interest” then they can back a debt financing. You havetied and untied financing.Untied is basically - it's not tied just to the value of the equipment that that country is providing you, and that's what we got from French ECA. So, different French government back to UCA and it's more linked to the offtake we have with Stellantis and Renault. That means that the amount can be much higher, and what this means is that with the backing provided by the ECAs, if the company were to default on the debts in the future to the banks, then the ECA would step in and take that off. It gives the banks an enormous amount of confidence and that is government money. So, we've got letters of intent backing which has been, in the large part, helped by our offtaker's Stellantis and Renault - they've provided backing, which has assisted with that process. I think we're already seeing some sort of assistance. It's not “cold hard cash” but it's support for “cold hard cash”. In terms of government, there is a grant scheme for heating renewable heating networks in Germany which we're applying for - that could be up to 40% of the Capex for those for the renewable heating parts. Not sure about timing on that, but we are certainly applying for that, and we understand there is substantial funding available. The geothermal is a significant part of our Capex so, that that could help a lot. The other aspect is that with this recent legislation that was announced in Europe, it basically unlocks the member states to be able to provide backing for their own projects. Germany's the wealthiest country in the EU so, we hope that it will be able to unlock Germany more to be able to back projects such as ours. We know there's some emergency funding packages which have been prepared. We think that we'll find out more about that over the summer so, we are hopeful, and we are focused very closely on this. And as I said, in the meantime we'll be applying for things like that renewable heating assistance scheme.


- BNP is lead debt arranger
- Strategic Project -
Why???

because Vulcan is supplying French auto OEMs (Stellatis & Renault) with lithium and it's strategically important (employment for example, security of supply, green credentials etc.) by the French Government. This designation as a project of strategic National Importance allows the French government-backed export credit agency - ECA - to be involved in the upcoming financing process which is likely to have a substantial part of the debt covered by ECA's - government-backed money - and that means lower default risk which means lower interest rate and less stringent covenants.

There are billions of dollars necessary to build this out - even Phase 1 needs well over another $1B - once proven successful at scale.

Still much that can go wrong ... so invest accordingly and remain aware of the risks.