As previously announced, the facility will provide East Energy with $13.48 million to repay its debt to Idalia Coal, a subsidiary of the Noble Group that East Energy acquired on May 10.

The debt repayment will allow Idalia to repay its own loan to Noble and leaves about $5 million for East Energy to draw down for working capital.

The money raised will be used by the company to maintain exploration at its Blackall Coal project, as well as the new Idalia tenements.

“It is great to have the Idalia transactions completed and to have access to this facility to enable the further development of our Blackall project and now our new Idalia tenements as well,” East Energy managing director Mark Basso said.

“We are currently finalising our exploration plans going forward, now that we have several more tenements to consider. It is a very exciting time for East Energy.”

Funding will be provided on a staggered basis and the interest may be capitalised for the term of the facility, at the discretion of East Energy.

The applicable interest rate is the six-month bank bill swap rate plus a margin of 7.0%.

Repayment of the facility can be made at any time and without restriction within the five-year term, with a six-month extension available to East Energy.

East Energy has over 1.2 billion tonnes of inferred JORC thermal coal resource and 458 million tonnes of indicated JORC thermal coal resource proven on its Blackall Tenement in the Eromanga Basin in Queensland.