Marathon Gold Corp says it has executed a credit-approved commitment letter with Caterpillar Financial Services Limited for equipment lease financing related to the development and operation of the Valentine gold project in Newfoundland, Canada.

The commitment letter with Cat Financial contemplates $81 million of equipment leasing for Caterpillar trucks, excavators, graders, loaders and dozers, for the purpose of loading, hauling, road maintenance, waste dump maintenance and primary pit support for the project.

The lease will be available to the company upon release of the project from its federal Environment Assessment process, review of the project’s updated feasibility study, satisfaction of a cost to complete certification and other customary conditions, Marathon Gold said.

An April 2021 feasibility study outlined an open-pit mining and conventional milling operation at Valentine with a 2.5 Mt/y processing rate over a 13-year mine life with a 31.5% after-tax internal rate of return and initial capital costs of C$305 million ($237 million). The project has estimated Proven reserves of 1.40 Moz (29.68 Mt at 1.46 g/t) and Probable reserves of 650,000 oz (17.38 Mt at 1.17 g/t).

Matt Manson, President and CEO of Marathon, said: “We are very happy to be announcing today our equipment leasing commitment with Cat Financial, another significant milestone in our project financing arrangements for the Valentine Gold Project. This agreement will provide financing for the project’s mobile mining equipment through project development and into the first several years of mining operations at an attractive overall cost of capital for Marathon.”

The lease announcement follows hot on the heels of Marathon Gold signing a Letter of Intent with SNC-Lavalin to complete detailed engineering for the project’s mill and major facilities, and develop related equipment and construction packages.