Global legal practice Norton Rose Fulbright’s teams in London, Ottawa and Toronto have successfully advised a syndicate of Canadian and international lenders on the financing of the Gahcho Kue Diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada, which reached financial close on 7 April 2015.

The mine is the largest new diamond mine currently under construction globally. Mountain Province Diamonds’ (MPV) subsidiary is the minority joint venture partner developing the project with De Beers Canada, and as well as being the majority partner, De Beers is also the operator for the joint venture. The lending group provided financing and hedging arrangements to the MPV group, for its US$370m share of the construction costs, in the largest mining project financing to close for some time. An unincorporated joint venture structure is unusual in mining project financing, and laid the foundation for a bespoke structure.

Teams in London and Canada worked closely together on all aspects of the transaction from structuring to closing. The team was led by Martin McCann in London, assisted by Lisa Koch, and by Geoff Gilbert and Alison Babbitt in Canada. Martin commented:

“People often ask us why we have spent time building the global business we have. Well it’s to be able to advise on deals like this. It was seamless.

“The pipeline in mining project finance in North America looks very strong for this year and this deal should place us perfectly for these mandates”.