Russian gold miner Polymetal International PLC secured a 10-year, fixed-rate loan of US$500 million with Russia's state-owned Sberbank.

The facility will replace the company's existing loans with the bank, which were due to mature between 2021 and 2024, and other short-term debt, Polymetal said in an Oct. 16 news release.

The company did not disclose the interest rate for the loan, though Polymetal Corporate Finance Director Eugenia Onuschenko said the loan would lower borrowing costs and was the first 10-year credit facility in the company's history.

Polymetal will draw down the loan until the end of 2019, and it becomes repayable in equal installments between 2026 and 2029.

Onuschenko said the credit facility will remove peak repayments from the years of construction of the Nezhda gold project and POX-2 plant in Russia, easing the company's loan repayment profile.