Australia's Aim Gets Funding for Burkina Faso Mine

Posted 18 October 2006 @ 08:39 am EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Aim Resources Ltd. said it had arranged $145 million in financing to develop a zinc mine in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, mostly from South Africa's Standard Bank.

Aim, which hopes to start mining the Perkoa deposit in the Sanguie Province of Burkina Faso, 120 kilometres (74 miles) west of the capital Ouagadougou in about a year, said Standard Bank would provide $90 million in project finance facilities.

Emerging markets private equity investment group Cartesian Capital had been mandated to coordinate a $35 million convertible note issue, while brokers Seymour Pierce would coordinate a $20 million share issue, it said. Aim is among a growing legion of small-capped prospectors racing to dig new lodes as zinc prices rise sharply while demand for the anti-corrosive alloy in steel outruns supplies.

Aim's mine is earmarked to yield 500,000 tonnes of zinc a year. In London Metal Exchange trading on Tuesday, zinc hit a record high of $4,020