Column: Trump 2.0 won’t reverse Biden’s critical minerals push
Donald Trump has described the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as a "green scam" and vowed to repeal it after he returns to the White House in January.
At the beginning of the month, Filo Mining (TSX: FIL; NASDAQ: FIL) announced a C$100 million non-brokered private placement in support of exploration and development at its Filo del Sol copper-gold project in the San Juan region of Argentina. Now two weeks later, the offering has closed and been increased 30% to C$130 million ($97.5m).
“The private placement provided us with an opportunity to raise funds at-market with limited dilution. In addition to the support of the Lundin Family and BHP, the private placement was well supported by institutional investors, including funds and accounts managed by BlackRock,” said Filo president and CEO Jamie Beck. “This sets Filo up well for the next phase of drilling as we grow and define this remarkable deposit.”
The company sold a total of nearly 6.2 million common shares at a price of C$21.10 each. It now has 130.1 million shares outstanding. A finder’s fee of 5% will be paid on a portion of the placement.
In February 2023, the company released a pre-feasibility study for the Filo del Sol project, in which it holds a 100%-interest. The study considered only the oxide resources with an after-tax net present value (8% discount) of $1.3 billion and an after-tax internal rate of return of 20%. Developing the mine and mill to production will take an investment of $1.8 billion, and payback will occur 3.4 years after production begins.
Annual output will be 145.5 million lb. of copper, 168,000 oz. of gold, and 9.3 million oz. of silver.
The oxide resources are 362.2 million indicated tonnes grading 0.34% copper, 0.33 g/t gold, and 13.3 g/t silver, containing 2.7 billion lb. of copper, 3.8 million oz. of gold, and 154.7 million oz. of silver. There are also 132.7 million inferred tonnes grading 0.25% copper, 0.30 g/t gold, and 9.9 g/t silver.
The sulphide resources are 70.4 million indicated tonnes grading 0.31% copper, 0.35 g/t gold, and 2.5 g/t silver, containing 473 million lb. of copper, 790,000 oz. of gold, and 8.0 million oz. of silver. The inferred sulphide resource is 78.9 million tonnes at 0.31% copper, 0.35 g/t gold, and 3.1 g/t silver.
