Goldplat secures funding for Kilimapesa processing plant expansion

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Goldplat has, through its Gold Mineral Resources (GMR) subsidiary, entered into a $2-million uncommitted, on-demand, revolving pre-export loan facility with Scipion Active Trading Fund (SATF), arranged by Scipion Capital (Scipion).

Goldplat is in the process of expanding the processing plant at its Kilimapesa gold mine, in Kenya, which to date has been funded out of internally generated operating cash flows.

With Stage 1 of the expansion commissioned, the company has decided to arrange the loan facility to recapitalise the group’s subsidiaries that have financed the work to date, and to fund the expenditure on Stage 2 of the processing plant expansion.

Stage 2 is expected to double gold production at Kilimapesa from the current 60 t/d, with a target of achieving a yearly production rate of about 4 500 oz.

“We stated in February that we were looking at various forms of debt capital raising with a view to restructuring the group balance sheet,” Goldplat CEO Gerard Kisbey-Green said.

He added that, besides using the funds to complete Stage 2 of the processing plant expansion, the company will also use the loan to repay the capital made available to Kilimapesa Gold from other group subsidiaries for goods and services rendered.

“The result will be a cleaner and more appropriate group capital structure and [better] availability of working capital for our recovery businesses.”

The loan facility is available for a period of 360 days from the date of first drawdown and the term can be extended, or the size increased, on the mutual agreement of both parties. Interest is payable on amounts drawn under the loan facility at a rate equal to the London Interbank Offered Rate, plus a margin of 9.5% a year.

Security on the drawn amounts has been granted over Goldplat Recovery Limited’s (GPL’s) tailings facility in South Africa, intercompany loan agreements, contracts and proceeds of sales with gold refiners, and the collection bank account operated by GMR for that purpose. The security is granted by GMR and other subsidiaries of Goldplat, with GPL signing as guarantor.