ICBC provides a $105 million USD loan to Norton Gold Fields for capital spending requirements at Paddington Gold Mine, exploration programs, acquisition opportunities, and to repay a $38 million AUD loan from Jinyu (Linked to Record ID#93941, #93972, and #93973)

Project narrative

On November 22, 2012, the Perth Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) signed a $105 million USD credit facility agreement with Australian gold producer Norton Gold Fields Limited (NGF). The loan carried a maturity period of three years from the initial drawdown and was secured by a $115 million USD letter of guarantee issued by Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd., Norton's major shareholder, with a fee of 1.2% of the $115 million USD Zijin guarantee per annum payable to Zijin for its provision. It carried an interest rate of LIBOR plus a margin of 2.1%. The proceeds of this credit line were to be used by the borrower to fund the Norton's calendar year 2013 capital spending requirements at its Paddington Gold Mine, namely in the form of an allocation of $38 million AUD to purchase a mining fleet for Paddington, allowing Norton to replace equipment hired from contractors and facilitating its transition to an owner operator model at Paddington through the purchase a mining fleet, to finance ongoing exploration programs and the exploration of acquisition opportunities, and repay Norton's $38 million AUD from Jinyu (H.K.) International Mining, a wholly owned-subsidiary of Zijin. The $38 million AUD loan from Jinyu that was repaid by the $105 million USD loan is captured by Record ID#93941. In December 2014, Norton entered a $120 million AUD loan with ICBC and the Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) to repay the $105 million USD loan facility. ICBC's contribution to the $120 million AUD loan is captured by Record ID#93972 and ABC's contribution is captured by Record ID#93973.