Venturex Resources Ltd. secured a US$70 million senior debt facility from global commodities trader Trafigura Pte. Ltd. to develop the former's wholly owned flagship Sulphur Springs copper-zinc project in Western Australia.

Venturex will repay the four-year facility with copper and zinc concentrate from the project. The companies will also discuss a US$15 million cost overrun facility.

Additionally, Venturex and Trafigura agreed to an off-take deal for all of the concentrates produced at the project for the first 11 years from the start of production and 50% of the annual concentrates after that for the life of the mine.

The off-take excludes the existing zinc off-take agreement with Toho Zinc Co. Ltd.

A definitive feasibility study for Sulphur Springs pegged a posttax net present value, based on a discount rate of 8%, of A$310 million and an internal rate of return of 39%.

The project is expected to produce an average of 15,000 tonnes per annum of copper and 35,000 tpa of zinc over a 10.3-year mine life.