Workers are seen loading equipment at a Prieska mine in the Northern Cape. Picture: SUPPLIED
Orion said on Monday it had repaid about R23.9m in a loan facility taken out with the Anglo American sefa Mining Fund in 2015 for the exploration of the Prieska copper-zinc project on which it expects to spend R5bn to get up and running. “The repayment of this legacy loan facility ... is a very important milestone for Orion and our development strategy,” Orion MD and CEO Errol Smart said in a statement.
Orion’s share price rose 16.7% to 28c on the JSE on Monday, giving the company a market value of just more thanIn October, the state-owned IDC advanced a R250m loan for early mining works and predevelopment of Prieska. This came just a month after the IDC agreed to provide R34.5m to support pre-development costs at Orion’s Okiep Copper Project in exchange for a 43.75% share in the New Okiep Mining Company.