Kinterra raises $80M to support Pumpkin Hollow restart

[Redator]

Canadian private equity firm Kinterra Capital has secured $80 million led by Lionhead to reboot the Pumpkin Hollow underground mine in Nevada, targeting first production within 24 months.

The company acquired Pumpkin Hollow last October through a $128 million stalking horse bid for its previous owner Nevada Copper, which had briefly brought the mine into production before encountering operational setbacks and subsequently went bankrupt.

At the time of the sale, the project was fully permitted and had about $800 million in installed infrastructure, with no debt or stream obligations.

With core infrastructure already in place, Kinterra said it will focus on closing pre-existing gaps, conducting comprehensive data collection and trade-off studies, and advancing engineering across all disciplines to industry standards.

As well, the new funding will be used to advance the nearby Southwest Open Pit copper project, which also came with the underground mine. Within the next 24 months, Kinterra aims to complete trade-off studies and a feasibility study for the project, which contains approximately 3.6 billion lb. of copper and is expected to have a 20-year mine life. All major project permits are in place, and the studies have already begun, it said.

Western US portfolio

Kinterra’s co-managing partner Cheryl Brandon considers both projects to be “pivotal milestones” for the company’s large and growing US copper portfolio and the US supply chain.

“Within the next 24 months, we expect to have a producing and cash-flow-generating underground copper mine and a shovel-ready open pit, all in Nevada,” she stated in a press release on Monday.

On an annualized basis, Kinterra’s management estimates that the two assets have the potential to supply approximately 228 million lb. of copper per year, representing roughly 5–6% of current US copper demand.

“Pumpkin Hollow is exactly the type of investment that Lionhead seeks to invest in: a high-quality asset with a clear path to restart and a management team with a proven ability to execute,” said Paul Quirk, co-founder and managing partner at Lionhead.

In addition to the Nevada assets, Kinterra also holds the Antler copper project in Arizona, acquired through its recent takeover of Australia’s New World Resources (ASX: NWC). Also an underground project, Antler hosts over 400 million lb. of contained copper and 1.3 billion lb. of zinc.