The facility agreement, which is subject to shareholder and Toronto Stock Exchange approval, will also provide Coalspur with funds to pursue further business development opportunities.
Upon closing of the facility agreement, Coalspur will have access to about $100 million in cash and available credit.
Coalspur managing director Gene Wusaty said the facility agreement provided Coalspur with essential funding for the remaining capital requirements of Vista.
“The facility agreement will significantly strengthen the company’s financial position as we will have access to approximately $100 million in cash and credit lines,” Wusaty said.
“The company is now positioned to fund all anticipated activities at Vista through to the start of construction in early 2013.”
Coalspur anticipates engineering work on Vista to begin in the coming weeks with completion scheduled for early 2013.
Coalspur is focused on several additional initiatives as it prepares for construction on Vista.
The initiatives include progressing project financing discussions with potential offtake partners, evaluating the utilization of a mining contractor and submitting the final regulatory applications required to begin construction.
Coalspur only recently completed a bankable feasibility study for the project following a prefeasibility study which was finalised last December.
The Vista thermal coal project is earmarked to have a 30-year mine life, with its development split into two phases.
Phase 1 is scheduled to begin in 2015 and will produce 5 million tons per annum of coal, while the second phase will boost coal production to 11.2Mtpa by 2018.
The Vista thermal coal project has the potential to be the largest export thermal coal mine in North America, covering approximately 9984 hectares.
Coalspur secured 8.5Mtpa of port allocation at Ridley terminals and also signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian National Railway, which would see the development of a high-quality logistics supply chain from Vista to deep water ports on Canada’s west coast.
