True North secures $42m to pursue mining plans

True North Copper has secured $42 million of funding from US-based investment manager Nebari as it works to bring its Cloncurry Copper Project online. True North managing director Marty Costello said the funds would be used to refinance the environmental bond as the key next step in the planned mining restart at Cloncurry, as well as for working capital and restart capital. "TNC will soon announce the approved Cloncurry Copper Project mine plan," he said. "We’re incredibly excited about restarting mining and bringing the Cloncurry Copper Project into production at a time where the world’s copper supply is really tightening up and the metal price is rising." True North and Nebari have executed formal loan documentation for the loan facility to provide up to $US28 million (equivalent to $AU42 million) in two tranches. This includes $US18 million to be drawn at closing and $US10 million available to be drawn subject to certain conditions precedent, including the start of commercial production of sulphide ore at the Cloncurry Copper Project. True North's plan to commence copper metal production at that project involves combining the Great Australia Mine reserve and the Wallace North resource into a single mining operation. While studies are still underway, the project is expected to produce 39,645 payable copper tonnes and potential net revenue of $524 million over a mine life of nearly six years, according to information released to the ASX. This month, True North announced it had secured offtake and toll-milling agreements with Glencore to support that development. Related: Glencore inks deal for True North copper output The company is already producing copper sulphate from the refurbished Great Australia Mine solvent extraction (SX) plant. True North reported on January 15 that plant performance in the past quarter was below expectations due to several events during late November 2023 and throughout December. True North produced 70.38t of copper metal in the last quarter of 2023 (288.612t of copper sulphate at 24.39 per cent copper). Its production estimate for that quarter had been 160t-300t. It has since twice received 'please explain' notes from the ASX about the timing and weight of this announcement. True North argues that a reasonable person would not expect the information to have a material effect on the price or value of its securities. Copper sulphate production from existing stockpiled ore at Mount Norma comprised a small portion of the company's overall project profile and was ancillary to its key assets, being the Cloncurry Copper Project and the Mt Oxide project, Mr Costello said in his response to an ASX Aware Query. The company said it became aware of the December 2023 quarter result as a part of end-of-month reconciling and reporting during the week of January 8, when normal office hours resumed.

True North secures $42m to pursue mining plans

Industry Queensland

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