AfriTin agrees £2.46m facility to fund Namibia operations

Namibia and South Africa-focussed tin mining company AfriTin Mining has agreed a £2.46m working capital facility with Nedbank Namibia, it announced on Friday.

It said a working capital facility of NAD 35m (£2m) and a VAT facility for NAD 8m (£0.46m) had been entered into between its subsidiary AfriTin Mining Namibia and Nedbank.

It said the VAT facility was secured by assessed and audited VAT returns which had not been paid by Namibia Inland Revenue yet.

For the remaining NAD 35m, the loan was repayable in full 12 months from the date of execution, with interest accruing on the loan at a rate of JIBAR plus 3.658%, which was currently approximately 10.7%.

The loan had a facility fee of NAD 0.2m, and an annual renewal fee of NAD 0.12m.

Both AfriTin and its 8% shareholder Bushveld Minerals had offered surety for the loan to Nedbank as collateral, in the form of a joint suretyship from AfriTin and Bushveld.

The Bushveld suretyship would be limited to NAD 30m, and in the event of default, Nedbank would first call on the suretyship of the parent company of the AfriTin Group, being AfriTin Mining.

In the event that AfriTin Mining could make payment, it was only at that point that Nedbank would call upon the Bushveld suretyship.

“This facility will enable the technical team to focus on a successful ramp-up in order to achieve the design capacity of the pilot plant’s first phase, as the company transitions into cash flow,” said AfriTin Mining chief executive officer Anthony Viljoen.

“Procuring financing from a local Namibian financial institution highlights that there is sufficient comfort and belief in AfriTin's long-term business case and emphasises the importance of the Uis Tin Mine to the national economy.

“Having secured a working capital facility for the ramp-up phase of the pilot plant, AfriTin is on track to creating the first revenue-generating, conflict-free asset in our portfolio.”