Lundin Mining took a significant step toward becoming one of the biggest copper players on the planet. The company recently locked in commitments from 17 different lenders to grow its credit facility to $4.5 billion. It’s a huge number, but the goal is to acquire the cash to get the Vicuña Project off the ground.
Located on the border of Argentina and Chile, Vicuña is one of the largest undeveloped copper, gold, and silver deposits in the world. Lundin owns half of it, and this new influx of credit is essentially the fuel they need to start building.
Funding the Copper Extraction
The money isn’t hitting the bank account all at once. For example, Lundin currently has access to $2.25 billion. Once they hit certain milestones, that jumps to $3.5 billion. When the first stage of the Vicuña Project is officially greenlit, they’ll have the full $4.5 billion at their disposal. They’ve also pushed the deadline to pay it back all the way out to 2031.
The interesting part is that the price of borrowing this money isn’t going up. They’re keeping the same interest rates they had before, which shows that the banks are comfortable with how Lundin is running things.
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Why It Matters
This is about a long-term shift in where our metal comes from. Copper is a huge part of modern tech and power grids, and Lundin wants to produce over 500,000 tons of it every year.
Teitur Poulsen, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, said, “The upsizing of our Credit Facility to $4.5 billion is one of the cornerstones to advancing the Vicuña Project and keeps us on track of our goal to become a top-ten global copper producer with annual production of over 500,000 tons of copper once Vicuña is in full operation.”
He also noted that working with 12 existing lenders and five new ones shows a lot of trust in the project.
“As we continue to work with our partner BHP to optimize the funding strategy for the Vicuña Project, the extension and upsizing of the Credit Facility further strengthens our financial flexibility and underscores the confidence of our lending partners in the quality of the Vicuña Project and our broader operating portfolio.”
