Yukon Zinc secures Barclays’ funding

Yukon Zinc Corp, the Vancouver-based metals exploration company, has secured US$140 million in funding from Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank.

The loan, which has a term of seven-and-a-half years, will be used for the development of Yukon’s Wolverine zinc and copper project in southeast Yukon, Canada.

According to Harlan Meade, the company’s president and chief executive, the financing arrangement can be seen as a vote of confidence in the project, which has overcome many obstacles in its progress.

The development of Yukon is expected to cost around US$250 million, and under the conditions of the Barclays loan Yukon Zinc must now secure the balance of the financing needed to build the mine.

The first concentrate shipments from Wolverine are scheduled to begin by early to mid 2009.

In the first three years of operations, Wolverine is forecast to produce 116 million pounds of zinc, 10 million pounds of copper and 13 million pounds of lead in concentrates containing 4.9 million ounces of silver and 20,200 ounces of gold.

To date work completed on the project includes a new campsite and an access road, which is undergoing an upgrade in certain sections to allow for the haulage of plant.