African gold producer Goldplat plc (LON:GDP) has secured a US$2mln loan facility to restructure its balance sheet and fund its plant expansion at the Kilimapesa mine in Kenya.
The group’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Gold Mineral Resources Ltd, agreed the revolving pre-export loan facility with Scipion Active Trading Fund.
Goldplat chief executive, Gerard Kisbey-Green, said the company will use the funds to complete the second stage of its plant expansion at Kilimapesa.
It will also use the loan to repay the capital made available to Kilimapesa Gold Limited from other group subsidiaries, which have financed the work to date.
The second stage of the expansion is expected to increase gold production at Kilimapesa from the 60 tonnes per day achieved in the first stage, to 120 tonnes per day.
Goldplat is targeting an annualised production rate of about 4,500 ounces of gold following the completion of stage two.
The new loan is available for 360 days from the date of first draw-down and there is an option for the term to be extended or increased if both parties agree.
Kisbey-Green said: "We stated in our interim results announced on 20 February 2017 that we were looking at various forms of debt capital raising with a view to restructuring the group balance sheet and I am very pleased to have agreed this loan facility with Scipion."
He said the loan will lead to a “cleaner and more appropriate group capital structure and availability of working capital for our recovery businesses”.
Shares gained 3.39% to 7.62p in afternoon trading.