The American company Strategic Metals (USSM) has received a loan from the Export-Import Bank (USA) in the amount of $ 400 million for a period of 15 years to support the development of its mining and metallurgical project in Missouri.

Founded in 2018, USSM (formerly Missouri Cobalt) currently processes base metals from lithium-ion batteries and third-party concentrates at its metallurgical plant. The company also plans to develop a deposit, which, in its opinion, is the largest in North America in terms of cobalt reserves. The company has an 18-year reserve of mineral cobalt (plus nickel and copper) on a 7.3 square kilometre site known as the Madison Mine Project.

The Madison project includes an existing private mine that operated from 1844 to 1961. In 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the area a superfund site due to erosion of tailings ponds and the start of cleanup work. As part of its acquisition in 2018, USSM teamed up with local governments and the Environmental Protection Agency to implement a five-year cleanup plan.

In 2020, geological and block models were updated to study the mine’s reserves, including a previous feasibility study of drilled wells, which are estimated to contain 72 million pounds of mined cobalt, 105 million pounds of nickel and 103 million pounds of copper.

The EXIM loan, combined with existing equity and credit lines, will provide financing for almost all of the expected capital for construction and development needed to complete the project.

At the end of 2023, USSM received about $500 million in financing and a bank guarantee, against which $230 million in financing was received from branches of Appian Capital Advisory LLP. Past funding commitments include $120 million from HPS Investment Partners and $50 million from offtake and sourcing partner Glencore.