Fortescue Metals Group has secured a US$4.5bn senior secured credit facility from Credit Suisse and JP Morgan.

The loan proceeds will be used to refinance Fortescue’s existing bank facilities.

The five-year facility extends the earliest repayment date for any of the company’s debt to November 2015, and removes financial maintenance covenants which applied under previous facilities, Fortescue says in a statement.

Fortescue Metals last tapped the market in August this year with a US$1.5bn dual tranche facility to cover its expansion project at Port Hedland, Western Australia. And before this the company secured a US$490mn export credit agency-backed facility in May from ANZ, KfW and HSBC.