Here are 4 ASX mining developers that recently secured funding packages

ASX mining developers don’t have it easy because it all costs money to bring projects into production. Nonetheless, once that funding is secured, it is a game-changer for these companies. After years of studies and expensive investor lunches trying to sell their stories, they can now look ahead to becoming a newly minted miner. We thought we’d take a look at a few mining developers that secured funding packages recently, and we have found 4 of them.

4 ASX mining developers that recently secured funding packages

Euro Manganese (ASX:EMN)

$8.2bn global asset manager Orion Resource Partners liked what it saw in the Chvaletice manganese project in the Czech Republic. So much so, that it gave Euro Manganese US$100m in debt finance to develop the project.

Manganese is a widely known metal, although it doesn’t have as much of a reputation as a battery metal as lithium and nickel do. Nonetheless, it is required as a stabilising component in the cathodes of certain lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. And Chvaletice is the only sizeable, classified resource of manganese in the European Union. Furthermore, this project is not a new mine but it is a waste recycling initiative, utilising waste from a decommissioned mine that operated form 1951 to 1975.

The funding is split into two $50m tranches, including a $50m loan facility, convertible into a 1.29-1.65% royalty on project revenues, and another $50m in exchange for a 1.93-2.47% royalty on project revenues following the making of a Final Investment Decision.

Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR)

Liontown owns the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project in Western Australia. It has a current Mineral Resource Estimate of 156Mt at 1.4% lithium and over 80% of this is Measured or Indicated. While the company had targeted production for mid-2024, it had seemed for a while that it was going to be taken over before this happened.

You see, US lithium giant Albemarle wooed the company with a $6.6bn offer, that was ultimately withdrawn. This forced Liontown to seek finance to develop the project, and it obtained over $1bn. It secured a A$760m debt funding package (issued by a syndicate of lenders including, but not limited to, all Big 4 Banks) and a $376m equity raising, $10.8m of which was personally chipped in by Timothy Goyder. Liontown still expects production in mid-2024.

Mayur (ASX:MYR)

Back to smaller developers now, Mayur has a project in Papua New Guinea that it claims is Asia-Pacific’s first carbon-neutral quicklime, clinker and cement project. It can meet 100% of PNG’s requirements for these commodities and still have some scope for exports. The project has a 20-year Mining Lease and a JORC Resource of 382Mt that will see 0.7Mtpa in limestone and 0.9Mtpa in cement.

Mayur has signed an exclusive non-binding term sheet with Appian Capital Advisory to develop the project. This provides for up to US$90m and is on top of a US$40m investment by Vision Blue Resources. The package is subject to completion of due diligence.

Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8)

Black Cat Syndicate secured $60m in funding from Chinese industry investors. A non-binding deal was signed in September and formal agreements were executed in October. The final deal still needs shareholder approval and the approval of regulators in Australia and China. This is because it is an equity investment that will see the group holding a near 20% stake.

Black Cat’s Paulsens project is a gold operation that lies about 180km west of Paraburdoo in Western Australia, right in the Ashburton Basin. It comprises an underground mine, a 450,000-tonne-per-annum (tpa) processing facility, a 128-person camp, numerous open pits, and other related infrastructure.

All these developers can take a bow, for the future ahead of them looks bright.

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