Mining firm secures $15-M bridge facility

REPORT FROM BUSINESSWORLD ZAMBOANGA CITY — Mining firm TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc., has entered into an agreement with Hong Kong firm LIM Asia Arbitrage Fund, Inc. and LIM Asia Special Situations Master Fund Ltd. for a $15-million bridge financing facility to support its sulphide project in Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. The company described the financing facility as an interim step to fund ongoing construction activities at the Canatuan mine. "We are pleased to be working towards an interim loan facility while we continue to pursue permanent arrangements to finance the sulphide expansion project at Canatuan, including through the establishing of a joint-venture arrangement with an industry participation," said Clifford M. James, TVI’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement. Uninterrupted operations The mining firm is in the final stages of its gold and silver operation in Mt. Canatuan and is poised to start extracting copper and zinc through its sulphide project in the middle of 2008, Yulo E. Perez, TVI vice-president for Philippine operations told BusinessWorld. The agreement would guarantee uninterrupted operations of the company’s $23-million construction in Canatuan. The company has been in discussions with other mining and financing firms to secure the funding required to develop the sulphide project and to reduce its working capital deficiency. Last December, Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. and TVI entered into an agreement, where Atlas Consolidated advanced $1 million to TVI’s copper and zinc project for its Canatuan gold and silver mining operation. The LIM financing, the statement said, "provides that a second tranche of funding up to an additional $5 million may be made available under the structure of the [bridge financing] facility, to be sourced from a third party negotiated by TVI and consented to by the lenders." Six-month effectivity The term sheet indicates that the bridge financing facility will remain in place for six months. The "extension of the facility for the additional six-month term will be subject to payment of a 1% extension fee based on the amount borrowed under the Facility and satisfaction of a number of conditions." — Darwin T. Wee/BusinessWorld