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ABN 23 108
161 593
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Ground?Floor, 8?Colin?Street
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West Perth??WA??6005
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Tel:?+61?8?9324?1177
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Fax:?+61?8?9324?2171
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Email:?info@mirabela..com.au
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9 July 2008
Manager Announcements
Company Announcements Office
Australian Securities
Exchange
10th Floor, 20
Bond Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
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via electronic lodgement
MIRABELA SECURES DEBT FINANCING
PACKAGE
PERTH, AUSTRALIA Mirabela Nickel Limited (TSX: MNB, ASX: MBN) is
pleased to announce it has entered into a US$80m bridge financing facility with
Barclays and Credit Suisse to fund ongoing construction at Santa Rita.
Furthermore, Barclays and Credit Suisse have agreed to underwrite a
US$280m term loan facility, subject to standard conditions including
syndication. Drawdown under the US$280m facility is expected to take
place before year end whereupon the US$80m bridge facility will be repaid. The
bridging loan and the US$280m underwriting are credit approved by both Banks.
1,500,000 options will be issued to the Banks (half each) priced at A$7.22.
The options will vest subject to certain milestones and are exercisable
for the period three years after the date the options vest.
?We are delighted to obtain credit approval for bank financing and
secure financing for ongoing construction of the Santa Rita project,? said
Managing Director, Nick Poll. ?Whilst general credit market conditions
have weakened over the last year, interest in financing the Santa Rita project
has remained strong. This reflects the low capital and operating cost
structure of the Santa Rita project compared with other new nickel projects,?
he said.
Under an offtake agreement announced today,
Votorantim will provide Mirabela with an additional US$50M in prepayment
financing, which will be subordinated to the Bank facilities.
This
total debt package is expected to finance the remaining construction costs and
working capital requirements for development of the Santa Rita Project at a
throughput rate of 4.6 million tonnes a year. Construction is now about
30% complete and the project remains on track to commence production mid 2009.
Barclays and Credit Suisse are leaders in emerging
market financing and their teams respectively bring a wealth of experience in
mining & metals, financing projects and Brazil
specifically. They are complemented by two of the strongest commodity
derivative groups in the investment banking sector.
Nick
Poll
Craig Burton
Managing
Director
Corporate Director
Background
Mirabela Nickel Ltd is listed on the Australian and Toronto
stock exchanges. With an open-cut mining reserve of 84mt grading 0.61% Ni,
Santa Rita is the largest greenfields nickel sulphide discovery in the last 12
years and the third largest open-cut nickel sulphide mining reserve
worldwide.
Construction of a nickel sulphide concentrator
commenced in November 2007 and is progressing well. The plant is expected to
produce 18,500 tpa of nickel in a sulphide concentrate from one open-cut mine
starting from mid 2009 increasing to 25,000 tpa by mid 2010. At this rate of
production the project will have a mine life of at least 14 years.
Photos of the construction progress are available on
the Company website at: www.mirabela.com.au/projects.
Contact
details
Australia contact:
Toronto contact
(media):
Nick Poll, Managing
Director
Eric Tang, Porter
Novelli
Telephone: +61 8 9324
1177
Telephone: +1 (416) 422-7200
nickp@mirabela.com.au
eric.tang@porternovelli.com
Australia contact (media):
Caroline de Mori, Purple
Communications
Telephone: +61 8 9485 1254
cdemori@purplecom.com.au
***
Issued by
Purple Communications
Level 3, 28
Kings Park Road, WEST PERTH
WA 6005
Ph: 08 9485
1254 Fax: 08 6263 0455
purple@purplecom.com.au