Frontier Mining has received the second US$4 million loan payment to develop the Benkala copper project in Kazakhstan, Proactive Investors reported.
The company has two key projects, Benkala and Koskuduk. It hopes to bring the Benkala copper mine into production later this year, meanwhile the Koskuduk 'test-stage' gold mine achieved its first gold pour in July 2010.
Frontier has been focused on converting Benkala's Soviet-era resource into western standards, while simultaneously fast-tracking the mine into production. Recently it updated the project's total JORC resources to 1.56 million tonnes of contained copper, with 183,000 tonnes from oxide ore and 1.37 million tonnes from sulphide ore.
To help fund the mine development the company arranged a US$15 loan facility with HSBC Bank back in November 2010. The loan is tied to certain development milestones and the US$4 million tranche was received upfront in November.
Frontier said that the money is being spent on equipment for the mine development project.