From "The West" ......Today
De Grey Mining looks set to line up debt to the tune of $1 billion to fund Australia’s next big gold mine, but the MD insists they won’t just be “sitting still” when construction starts in the next six months. Despite being years away from pouring first gold, the listed explorer is valued at nearly $2.5 billion, and is chasing down a massive debt component to build a mine out of its famed Hemi discovery in the Pilbara. Mr Jardine told a packed WA Mining Club event on Thursday that it was expecting to get credit approved terms from commercial banks — potentially up to 10 — in a matter of weeks to bankroll the $1.3b project. Government agencies are also in the mix as potential backers of the project, he said.
With a busy and expensive build-stage ahead — generally considered a vulnerable time for mining companies — Mr Jardine told The West Australian that De Grey would be looking at additional exploration, project studies, and even “potential corporate activity". "We're not going to be sitting still during construction when it comes to value creation,” he said.
De Grey has also recently closed the book on another capital raising, this time for $600m, which will top up its coffers to nearly $900m.The participation of De Grey’s biggest shareholder Gold Road Resources in the May placement sparked much intrigue about the motivations of the listed mid-tier, which has a smaller market capitalisation at about $1.7b.Gold Road, which had a cash balance of about $143m in February and has long been considered a potential suitor or partner on the Hemi project, let its foothold slip from the takeover threshold of 19.9 per cent to just over 17 per cent. Mr Jardine told the mining audience it would be best to direct questions as to why to its shareholder, but indicated relations between the companies were positive.“If you wanted to go any further on that question probably best direct it to Gold Road,” he said
“Gold road have been very supportive of all of our capital raising since they became shareholders and are also very supportive of the board and management of De Grey. "He later said that De Grey hadn’t “found anything that can compete” from a shareholder or corporate perspective than going it alone on Hemi. A final investment decision is expected on Hemi in the second half of this year, to be followed by the start of early works construction, provided environmental approvals fall into place. Pulling staff away from well-paying iron ore miners in the Pilbara could prove challenging for De Grey, which is on a major hiring spree to find hundreds of workers ahead of construction starting. The company is banking on a major new gold project bringing diversity to the region, which is best known as the home of the steelmaking ingredient. Hemi is slated to produce 553,000oz in its first five years.
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