Canadian company Torex Gold Resources has secured a project finance facility worth US$250mn.

The finance comes from a syndicate of banks composed of BMO Capital Markets, BNP Paribas, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ING Capital and Société Générale. A letter of engagement has been signed and the loan is expected to be available for drawdown in Q3 2013.

The loan will be used to develop the Morelos gold project, 180km south-west of Mexico City.

Fred Stanford, president and CEO of Torex says: “With approximately US$395mn in the treasury now, we are well-financed to advance the engineering and procurement processes that support construction, starting immediately upon the receipt of the construction permits that are anticipated during the summer of this year.

“The attainment of this milestone in the debt financing process is a significant factor in de-risking the project and we look forward to working through the due diligence process and ultimately to signing a commitment letter with the banks for the project finance facility. This project finance facility has been sized to avoid a requirement for gold hedging.”