Crescent Gold Ltd is one step closer to gold mining at its Laverton operation, securing project financing of $25 million to fund an end-of-year start-up.
The money, received from Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd, will consist of a $20 million project gold loan, including a $5 million cost over-run facility, as well as a $5 million cash loan to buy gold puts and diesel caps and a gold hedging facility if required.
The mine is scheduled to go into production within six months, and to be at full production levels during the first half of 2007.
Production will come from current reserves of 292,000 ounces, sufficient for an initial three-year mine life, which the company expects to more than double in the next six to 12 months to provide a six-year reserve base.
The company is the largest landholder in the prime Laverton Tectonic zone, a world-class gold address about 200 kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie, which contains more than 23 million ounces of gold resources in a number of deposits.
These include international miner Barrick's producing nine million ounce Granny Smith/Just in Case/Wallaby operations nearby and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd's 7.7 million ounce Sunrise Dam/Cleo project further south.
Crescent shares lost .5c to close at 34 cents today.
