This photo taken on Nov. 30, 2015, shows a truck being driven out from the pit of the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Khanbogd sum in (div)mnögovi province in southern Mongolia.BYAMBASUREN BYAMBA-OCHIR/AFP / Getty Images
Turquoise Hill Resources has lined up $4.4-billion (U.S.) of financing from Canada and several other countries to fund the restart of a major copper mining project in Mongolia.
Financial backing for the Oyu Tolgoi underground project will come from a syndicate that includes Export Development Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
Other participants include government credit agencies from the United States, Australia and Europe and 14 other private-sector commercial banks from Europe, Japan and Australia.
The financing agreement sets the stage for Vancouver-based Turquoise Hill, the Mongolian government and Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto to restart work on the underground portion of Oyu Tolgoi.
Turquoise Hill has a 66 per cent interest in Oyu Tolgoi, in partnership with the Mongolian government and with support from Rio Tinto PLC, which is the largest shareholder in the TSX-listed mining company.
It says the financial syndicate has also agreed that Oyu Tolgoi – which is mining one of the world's largest copper deposits –has total debt capacity of US$6.0-billion, providing the option for an additional US$1.6-billion of financing in the future.