Northam Platinum Ltd. said May 23 that its funding capacity increased by 2 billion South African rand through a new revolving credit facility and the placement of medium-term notes, each amounting to 1 billion rand.
The unsecured revolving credit facility matures in April 2020 and is in addition to the company's existing 2 billion rand unsecured revolving credit facility maturing in November 2021. The new facility has the same interest rate as the existing one, being a variable rate of the Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate plus 3.3%.
Meanwhile, the notes placement has a 450 million rand and a 550 million rand tranche, through which one-year senior unsecured fixed-rate notes were issued. The notes bear a fixed coupon rate of 11% per annum, payable upon redemption.
Northam used a portion of the proceeds from the notes to repay drawdowns under the 2 billion rand facility, while the new facility remains undrawn.
The funds from the new facility are intended to give the company enough financial capacity during a capital-intensive development period for its Booysendal South platinum property in South Africa.
The company also said the ramp-up of the newly commissioned second furnace at its Zondereinde platinum mine in South Africa is progressing as planned, with concentrate feed now averaging about 400 tonnes per day.
Zondereinde has built up a surplus concentrate stockpile worth about 2 billion rand for the second furnace, and the company recently signed a deal to purchase third-party concentrate. Northam expects to complete processing the stockpiles in fiscal 2019.
