Baja Mining Signs $858m Facility

Canada-based Baja Mining Corp has signed a $858m financing facility to develop and construct its 70% owned Bolea project in Mexico. The financing is made up of a $823m project financing debt facility and $35m in equity. The latter comes from Louis Dreyfus Commodities in the form of a letter of credit. The US eximbank, Export Development Canada, Korea Development Bank and a group of commercial banks participated. The US eximbank provided $419m, EDC $150m, KDB $90m and commercial lenders $100m for project financing. KDB provided $64m in subordinated debt. Commercial banks involved are Barclays, Standard Chartered, Standard Bank, Unicredit and WestLB. “Closing of the facility means full-scale construction at Boleo can commence imminently,” says John Greenslade, president and CEO of Baja Mining. The Boleo copper- cobalt-zinc-manganese-project is targeted for copper commissioning in 2012 and has a minimum scheduled mine life of 25 years. The remaining 30% is owned a Korean syndicate of industrial companies. Company officials were not available to comment on pricing.