Base titanium pays debt, eyes virgin plant
Base Titanium, the Australian company mining titanium in Kenya is eying a facility to fund a Sh32 billion investment in a new plant in Madagascar.
The company has retired its Sh21.5 billion loan this year and says it has now created room to arrange a long-term affordable loan for its new investments.
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“The company repaid its outstanding balance of the Kwale Project Debt facility 20 months ahead of schedule, from a combination of cash reserves and utilization of an existing Revolving Credit Facility following a concurrent increase from $30 million to $75 million,” The Company said in its quarterly update.
By June, the company had a total debt of Sh9.2 billion consisting of the project debt (Sh8 billion) and Revolving credit (Sh1.2 billion).
Revolving credit is a type of credit that does not have a fixed number of payments, typically used to provide liquidity for a company’s day-to-day operations.
Following the repayment, the outstanding balance of the revolving facility is Sh4.8 billion although the company says it has better terms of cost, flexibility, and servicing.
The firm expects it will begin construction of it Toliara project in Madagascar in the last quarter of 2019 and begin production in the last quarter of 2021.
In Kenya, it wants to expand mining to the South Dune and is confident of unlocking exploration of the Vanga area following extensive talks with local leaders who had opposed their prospecting.
