Melbourne (Platts)--6Dec2012/408 am EST/908 GMT
Senior officials from Australia's Hancock Prospecting have been in Singapore this week trying to raise the first tranche of the $7 billion required to develop its Roy Hill iron ore project in Western Australia, which has a potential production capacity of 55 million mt/year. Accompanied by Australia's Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson, the officials have met with export credit agencies or ECAs from South Korea, Japan and the US with the aim of raising $4 billion in project finance, the company said in a statement. The balance $3 billion is expected to come from Australian and international banks. The Perth-based iron ore developer said in the statement it has met with to two Japanese ECAs, two from South Korea and one from the US. An ECA is an entity that provides government-backed loans.Article continues below...Sign up to Metals DailyPlatts Metals Daily offers prices, news and analysis for the aluminum, copper and molybdenum value chains. It contains hundreds of metals prices across base, minor, light and precious metals assessed by editors globally. This detailed report will help you monitor global events and quickly spot opportunities or potential pitfalls as well as bring you aluminum and copper price and news coverage. Daily prices and news for molybdenum are also covered to deliver critical insights.
Senior officials from Australia's Hancock Prospecting have been in Singapore this week trying to raise the first tranche of the $7 billion required to develop its Roy Hill iron ore project in Western Australia, which has a potential production capacity of 55 million mt/year. Accompanied by Australia's Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson, the officials have met with export credit agencies or ECAs from South Korea, Japan and the US with the aim of raising $4 billion in project finance, the company said in a statement. The balance $3 billion is expected to come from Australian and international banks. The Perth-based iron ore developer said in the statement it has met with to two Japanese ECAs, two from South Korea and one from the US. An ECA is an entity that provides government-backed loans.
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Platts Metals Daily offers prices, news and analysis for the aluminum, copper and molybdenum value chains. It contains hundreds of metals prices across base, minor, light and precious metals assessed by editors globally. This detailed report will help you monitor global events and quickly spot opportunities or potential pitfalls as well as bring you aluminum and copper price and news coverage. Daily prices and news for molybdenum are also covered to deliver critical insights.
The Hancock officials have provided technical and financial details of the Roy Hill project to satisfy the due diligence requirements of the ECAs, and the "positive feedback" the company had received has been "extremely encouraging", Roy Hill chief executive Barry Fitzgerald said in the statement. Securing finance for project has taken longer than Hancock had hoped because of the tight global credit market and a fall in commodity prices. Debt funding is now expected to be finalized next year rather than in 2012, pushing back the likely start date for exports to 2015 from late 2014. Hancock has sold a 30% equity stake in Roy Hill to South Korean steelmaker Posco (12.5%), Japanese trader Marubeni (12.5%), South Korean trader STX (2.5%) and Taiwan's China Steel Corp. (2.5%), which have a combined iron ore offtake allocation of 16.5 million mt/year. Posco is trying to sell a small part of its stake in Roy Hill but said last week it had full confidence in the project.--Paul Bartholomew, paul_bartholomew@platts.com --Edited by Wendy Wells, wendy_wells@platts.com
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