27th Nov 2018 10:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk PLC said Tuesday that it successfully commissioned Pressure Oxidation Hub at the Pokrovskiy mine located in the Amur region of Russia.
The company said that the initial success with the POX Hub commissioning suggests it is on track for gold production from the plant during the first quarter of 2019.
Petropavlovsk also said that it and 31%-owned unit IRC Ltd are "in the final stages" of concluding a refinancing agreement, and subsequent staged guarantee reduction, of a USD240 million facility with an unnamed Russian bank. Pursuant to the new loan, Petropavlovsk will be required to provide a new, reduced, guarantee to the lender.
The new loan will be used to refinance IRC's outstanding USD204 million project finance facility with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd and repay USD36 million to Petropavlovsk in relation to its short term loan and costs associated with the loan. Petropavlovsk acts as guarantor for the ICBC loan facility and provided IRC with a USD30 million bridging loan.
Petropavlovsk and IRC remains in advanced talks with ICBC to obtain a waiver for the upcoming December 20 loan payment until the refinancing with the unnamed Russian bank is finalised.
Petropavlovsk shares were trading up 2.5% at 5.90 pence each.
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POG.L