Peel Hunt has kept its rating on Horizonte Minerals PLC (AIM:HZM, TSX:HZM, OTC:HZMMF) at buy, with a target price set at 14p, after the junior announced the closing of its senior debt facility.
The nickel company announced earlier today it had closed its senior debt facility and cost overrun facility, which will contribute to the US$633mln funding package to build a ferronickel mine at Araguaia in Brazil.
A US$200mln senior debt facility, alongside two export credit agency loan agreements guaranteed by EKF and Finnvera and worth roughly US$75mln and US$72mln, account for US$346mln of the funding package, with the first drawdown expected in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The broker notes that the satisfaction of its convertible loan note, worth US$65mln with Orion and La Mancha, will help with the Araguaia construction kick-off, where earthworks for the rotary kiln electrical furnace processing plant will begin in the second half of the year.
Horizonte has also closed its US$25mln cost overrun facility for the construction of Araguaia, which is “expected to be accessed only if needed at the end of project construction at the end of 2023 or early 2024.”