Categories: Mining Stocks
Topics: Copper Stocks

Generation Mining (TSX: GENM)(OTCQB: GENMF) CEO Jamie Levy on Upwards of C$1 Billion in Financing Commitments and Path to Construction Decision at Marathon Copper-PGM Project, Ontario, Canada

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of Generation Mining (TSX: GENM)(OTCQB: GENMF) — Mr. Jamie Levy. 

Jamie, it’s great to have you back on. It's summertime but you and the team have been busy. Congratulations are in order. We'll get into why in a second. How are you, first and foremost?

Jamie Levy: I'm doing very well. Finally, all of the things we've been mentioning to your listeners are coming to fruition. We're getting ready to finance our project and build the next critical metals project in Canada.

Gerardo Del Real: You've done a heck of a job executing. Congrats again. On June 17, you announced senior lender credit approval for US$310 million.

Then, just a few days later, you secured another C$200 million from the Canadian Infrastructure Bank. Can you speak to how important securing that piece of the financing is? You're kind of in the driver's seat now to make a Construction Decision that could be a major catalyst for the second half of this year.

Jamie Levy: I'm hoping it's before the second half of this year, but I guess the second half of the year is coming up soon. Getting through credit approval with the banks was a huge feat for us. 

We're a small, single-asset company, and the banks' process is extremely rigorous. But we got that credit approval. Soon thereafter, we secured subordinated debt from the Canadian Infrastructure Bank, which we've been working on for a long time as well. They happened to get credit approval shortly after the banks did.

So, you put those two together — upwards of C$625 million combined — plus the equipment leases, plus the original Wheaton Precious Metals stream, which was the first domino to fall… those four dominoes together get us close to a billion dollars in committed capital. So, exciting times for the team at Generation Mining.

Gerardo Del Real: Right, and for those who aren't familiar with the project, there's a reason why Canada's Infrastructure Bank decided to come in and write a C$200 million check. That doesn't happen without a ton of very in-depth due diligence. Can you speak to the quality of the project and just how important it is for this part of the world?

Jamie Levy: The critical metals are, I would say, not only critical, they're also strategic for Canada and, hopefully, for our friends down south. By the way, happy 250th. I know there's a big birthday celebration coming up in the United States, so happy birthday to the USA.

But it was a big accomplishment for us to get through the due diligence process. The first major due diligence came from Wheaton Precious Metals a couple of years ago when we secured the stream with them. It's not easy to deploy C$240 million into a company of our size.

Then the banks engaged independent engineers who did a tremendous amount of work on the project. And finally, there was the CIB. Those three groups checked all of the boxes. 

For any new investors, they can rest assured that a lot of work has been done to verify the resources, the reserves, the capital numbers — just go down the list — the metallurgy, the capital costs, the operating costs. There's been a lot of eyeballs on this project, and I think the level of confidence for new investors should be very, very high.

Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned trying to wrap up the last piece before the second half of the year, and that's literally just around the corner. 

Jamie Levy: Yes, second half.

Gerardo Del Real: What does that second half of the year look like, Jamie? I know there's still a lot going on and a lot to be excited about despite all the advancements you've made thus far.

Jamie Levy: Yes, fair enough. Just to go back to the other question you had asked, and then I'll lead into the answer to your last question, a lot of the interest from the Canadian Infrastructure Bank, or the federal government of Canada, has been around these critical and strategic metals.

I think what everyone's starting to take notice of is not just the fact that we have palladium and platinum and gold and silver, but that we have a lot of copper. At today's prices — or the prices from a couple of days ago when we did our last presentation, which people can see on our website — 47% of our revenue comes from copper, 38% comes from palladium, and 10% comes from platinum. In revenue terms today, we are a copper project.

We've kind of been pigeonholed into being a PGM story — platinum and palladium, or palladium and platinum — but I think people are starting to awaken to the fact that this is a copper project with a PGM credit. 

I think the federal government and the province of Ontario are starting to realize, ‘Wow, this is a copper project as well.’ Hopefully, there's a lot more interest in copper from some of the listeners out there, and they realize that Generation Mining is not just a PGM project. It is actually a copper project with a PGM credit.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And to follow back up on the second half of this year, how do you see it playing out in a perfect world?

Jamie Levy: A perfect world would be as soon as possible. We're working with the federal government and other agencies, and we're working with strategic shareholders. I want this built as soon as we can. 

We still have the next financings to complete for the equity portion, but I'm not putting a timeline on it because every time I do, my phone rings: ‘Has it happened yet? Has it happened yet?’

All I can say is we're going to get it done as soon as we can. We'd like to have this financed by the fall of this year. That's our timeline. If it takes a little bit longer, it'll take a little bit longer to make sure we get the right shareholders in here.

As of right now, we're fully permitted and shovel-ready. We have some great long-lead orders in place, we have the subordinated debt, we have the senior debt, we have the Wheaton stream, and we have the equipment leases. We're about 80% of the way there on the capital raise.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent work. I’m excited for the next piece. Thank you so much for coming on, Jamie. I appreciate the time, as always.

Jamie Levy: Thank you so much, Gerardo. And again, happy birthday to America and happy birthday to Canada. We're a couple of days before you guys, but it's a great time for everybody. Stay tuned, please watch our news releases, and I'm hoping we'll be opening up this mine in the next couple of months.

Gerardo Del Real: Fingers crossed. I appreciate it. Thank you, Jamie.

Jamie Levy: Thanks, Gerardo.

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