Mozambique Mining: Kenmare Resources in debt restructuration

Kenmare Resources has reached agreement with its main creditors to restructure debt deriving from the exploitation of heavy sand deposits in Moma, Mozambique, the company indicated in a statement.

Under terms of the agreement, which also extends the amortisation period for the loan granted by ABSA Bank of the Barclays group, nearly half of the US$160 million debt with amortisation scheduled for August 2015 will be paid in nine equal semi-annual instalments over four years.

ABSA Bank accepted in turn that payment of a US$20 million loan can be postponed for a year until March 2016.

Kenmare Resources director Michael Carvill said he was satisfied by the agreement, which “enables us to retain money and become more flexible in the current period of low international prices for the products we extract in Mozambique.”

The main asset of Kenmare Resources is precisely the Moma concession in Nampula province, where the company extracts titanium minerals such as ilmenite and rutile, as well as zircon (zirconium silicate), from heavy mineral sand deposits.