LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Horizonte Minerals has satisfied all conditions for the first drawdown under its $346.2m senior secured project finance debt facilities, it announced on Thursday, and was now in receipt of the first tranche of funds.
The AIM-traded firm said the milestone unlocked the balance of the funding required to complete construction, commissioning and ramp-up at its wholly-owned Araguaia Nickel Project in Brazil, where construction was underway and progress remained on schedule.

In addition, Horizonte said it had also satisfied all of the conditions precedent in relation to utilisation of its cost overrun debt facility, and had fully drawn down the $25m of funding under that from Orion.

"This significant milestone for Horizonte is the culmination of a multi-year effort to sufficiently de-risk the Araguaia Nickel Project to access low-cost debt funding from a syndicate of leading international financial institutions," said chief executive officer Jeremy Martin.

"The rigorous due diligence process, and the extensive list of obligations that Horizonte was required to meet to access this funding, should provide all our stakeholders with confidence in the robustness of Araguaia.

"Our team continues to make solid progress on site as we work to deliver our objective of becoming a low-cost nickel producer."

At the close on Thursday, shares in Horizonte Minerals were up 2.21% at 138.5p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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