By Our Reporter
Mining firms in Uganda will have to move further than the exploration stage if they are to attract banks to finance the industry. According to Anthony Ndegwa, an investment banker at the Standard Bank of South Africa’s Mining Finance division, banks are keen to present credit to companies that are at the development and production stages.
“Explorations are a high-risk venture and many projects do not end up as viable mining operations. As a result, equity rather than debt funding is more suited for exploration. Bank financing is premised on positive projected cash flows at a high level of confidence, which a project at the exploration stage does not provide,