While we ARE waiting.
I hope managment are looking into getting finance from European export credit agencies.
Given the European interest in promoting the economy in West Africa to stop the flow of economic migrants I could def see them throwing in a lazy $200 million to get a large mine AND downstream processing plant happening express style. Give the contracts to a German company to build and operate on contract, with a large slice of training up and employing locals thrown into it.
Let's go straight to 4 MTPA!
The below a bit of reading on how much $ an ECA can shift if keen. Wow.
ECAs can fill a gap in funding requirements for a project with high value contributions from deep reserves and at lower sovereign-level funding costs. The Ichthys LNG project in Western Australia required an enormous debt financing of US$20 billion. When it closed in 2012 it was regarded as the largest project financing in global finance markets at the time. 24 commercial banks funded US$4.8 billion in uncovered loans but the project needed US$11.2 billion in support from 8 ECAs giving direct loans, guarantees or insurance cover, in order to get the financing over the line2. At US$5 billion, Japan Bank for International Cooperation’s (JBIC) loan into the Ichthys project was its largest ever.
Large scale export infrastructure projects in Asia Pacific in the energy, resources and port sectors continue to look to ECAs to supplement and facilitate finance. This may be partially due to insufficient liquidity in the local bank market for commercial banks to fund all of the debt (covered or uncovered), the long lifespan of a project or a potential political or economic risk. ECAs will also be keen to be involved to ensure critical energy exports or imports are protected.
The A$7.2 billion Roy Hill mine project financing in Western Australia which closed in April 2014 was facilitated by A$2.35 billion in ECA-backed facilities (offered by Korea’s Exim Bank (KEXIM) and Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-Sure) and Japan’s Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI)) and by just over A$2 billion in direct ECA loans from KEXIM, JBIC and US Ex-Im3. ECA involvement helped to stimulate commercial bank financing from an additional 19 commercial banks which may otherwise have been wary of falling commodity prices
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