FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Japanese Banks Close Financing for Copper Project
NEW YORK, September 27, 2010 – A bank group comprised of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (“BTMU”) and Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. (“Mizuho”) has closed and funded a US$162 million credit facility for the Copper Mountain Project, the re-development of the Similco Copper Mine located in southern British Columbia, Canada. The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, led by New York-based Global Project Finance partner Dan Bartfeld, represented BTMU and Mizuho as lenders and mandated lead arrangers. Both lenders will have the benefit of export credit insurance provided by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (“NEXI”). The capital structure included an additional term loan of US$160 million that was provided by Japan Bank for International Cooperation (“JBIC”).
“The successful financing of the Copper Mountain Project demonstrates that well-structured projects in the natural resources sector, particularly those with very strong sponsors like Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, are able to attract favorable financing even in a difficult financing market," noted Milbank's Bartfeld.
The Copper Mountain Project, an 18,000 acre mine site, has a current resource of approximately 5 billion pounds of copper and is anticipated to produce approximately 100 million pounds of copper per year by mid 2011. The mine’s operating company, Similco Mines Ltd., is owned by Copper Mountain Mining Corporation, a Canadian resource company, and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, one of the world’s largest diversified materials companies.
In addition to Mr. Bartfeld, the other Milbank attorneys involved in this transaction include Global Project Finance senior associate Daniel Michalchuk and associate Anne Shutkin.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance, project finance, acquisition finance and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation and arbitration teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, DC.
