Ivanhoe Electric gets EXIM Bank financing interest in US copper project
- 16 April 2025
Export-Import Bank of the United States could provide Ivanhoe Electric with up to US$825 million of debt finance for its proposed $1.15 billion Santa Cruz underground copper project in Arizona, where engineering major Fluor is working to deliver a preliminary feasibility study in June this year.
Robert Friedland-chaired Ivanhoe Electric says receipt of a letter of interest from the US export credit agency highlights broader interest in financing US projects able to increase domestic production of critical metals. The company is “assessing EXIM Bank’s interest together with other financing alternatives available to it for the development of the Santa Cruz copper project”.
“The United States urgently needs more domestically produced copper to support the rapid expansion and rebuilding of its electric transmission and transportation infrastructure, national defence capabilities and technologies of the future,” Friedland said this week.
“Santa Cruz is positioned perfectly to be a source of pure copper cathode to help the US achieve its strategic mission of greater self-reliance on domestic production of critical metals.”
EXIM Bank provides companies with direct loans and loan guarantees, working capital guarantees and export credit insurance. Its Make More in America initiative and China and Transformational Exports Program are aimed at boosting US competitiveness, strengthening supply chains and reducing strategic vulnerabilities.
Ivanhoe Electric CEO Taylor Melvin said the company continued to pursue other US government support avenues, including EXIM Bank’s Supply Chain Resilience Initiative and Section 45X advanced manufacturing production tax credit.
“We look forward to working together with the EXIM Bank to advance this significant financing opportunity as we rapidly progress our final engineering and permitting efforts at Santa Cruz towards initial construction in 2026,” Melvin said.
“As an advanced-stage copper project on private land in the US, 100%-owned by a US company and with the ability to produce pure copper cathode on-site, our Santa Cruz copper project is uniquely positioned to meet rising US demand for domestically sourced copper."
Ivanhoe Electric’s 2023 Santa Cruz initial assessment outlined plans for a circa-5.9 million tonnes per annum mine and flotation/SX-EW processing and cathode operation able to deliver about 1.6Mt of copper at $1.36/lb average C1 cash costs over 20 years.
The PFS is taking a closer look at proposed use of an electrified, automated Railveyor material movement system and all-electric underground mining vehicles to significantly reduce Scope 1 carbon dioxide emissions (and underground diesel particulate and other emissions). Ivanhoe Electric also wants to use onsite renewable power to meet 70% or more of its project power needs.
The company’s shares were up more than 28% in New York at $6.48 on the EXIM Bank news, capitalising it at about $860 million.
