London-listed Bezant Resources Plc has secured a US$7 million (about N$126 million) project financing and offtake package for the development of its Hope and Gorob Copper Project in Namibia, clearing a major hurdle ahead of the planned start of copper concentrate production in the third quarter of 2026.
The company announced on 10 June 2026 that it had completed definitive agreements with Hartree Metals LLC covering both a secured prepayment financing facility and a long-term copper concentrate offtake arrangement linked to the Hope and Gorob operation.
The agreements mark one of the more significant project-financing developments in Namibia’s junior mining sector this year and position Bezant to move from exploration and project development to copper production.
Under the agreements, Hartree Metals will provide a US$7 million secured and convertible financing facility to fund construction activities at the Hope and Gorob mine site and commissioning work at the NLZM Processing Plant, while also securing the right to purchase 100% of the copper concentrate produced from the operation for the life of mine.
The financing arrangement effectively ties together mine development, plant commissioning, concentrate marketing and export logistics under a single strategic commercial relationship.
Bezant said mine development has continued during the due diligence and documentation process and that the project remains on schedule and within budget for first concentrate production in the third quarter of 2026.
Executive chairman Colin Bird said the company viewed the agreement as the beginning of what it hopes will become a long-term relationship across its Namibian asset base.
He said the agreements aligned with the company’s original expectations and timing following the announcement of the financing term sheet on 31 October 2025.
The Hope and Gorob development plan is built around a two-site operating structure designed to reduce processing costs and improve ore efficiency.
The first component is the Hope and Gorob mine itself, where run-of-mine ore from the copper-gold mineral resource will be crushed and subjected to multi-sensor dry ore sorting technology to separate waste material from mineralised ore before transport.
The second component involves the refurbishment and recommissioning of the existing NLZM flotation processing plant in Namibia, which had previously been placed under care and maintenance.
The plant is being repurposed to process the pre-concentrated copper-gold ore generated from Hope and Gorob into export-grade copper concentrates destined for international smelting markets.
Copper concentrate produced from the operation will be exported through the Port of Walvis Bay, Namibia’s main deep-water port, located approximately 60 kilometres from the NLZM processing facility.
Monthly concentrate shipments are expected to increase progressively as the operation ramps up production following commissioning.
The financing package itself contains several features that reflect both the risks and commercial expectations associated with junior mining project development.
The facility will be released in five separate tranches, with the final tranche payable only once pre-production commissioning activities at the NLZM plant are completed.
The loan carries a four-year term, including a 12-month grace period during which no principal or interest repayments are required before entering a straight-line repayment structure.
Interest will be charged at the Secured Overnight Financing Rate plus a 4.5% margin, together with an establishment fee equal to 1% of the total facility value.
Hartree Metals has also secured the option to convert all or part of the financing into Bezant shares at a conversion price of £0.0016 per share, representing a 28% premium to the company’s closing share price of £0.00125 on 10 June 2026.
In addition, Hartree Metals will receive a four-year warrant with a subscription value of US$1.75 million exercisable at £0.0011 per share, matching Bezant’s closing share price on 30 October 2025 when the original financing term sheet was announced.
The agreement further provides that if Hartree Metals’ shareholding in Bezant increases to 10% or more, the company will gain the right to nominate a director to Bezant’s board, subject to standard due diligence procedures.
As security for the facility, Hartree Metals will hold claims over certain Hope and Gorob project assets, including mine infrastructure and Bezant’s shareholdings in the project companies.
The financing agreement also comes as copper continues attracting renewed global investor interest due to growing long-term demand linked to electrification, renewable energy infrastructure and electric vehicle manufacturing.
Namibia has increasingly positioned itself as a future supplier of critical minerals and base metals required for the global energy transition, with copper exploration and development activity rising across several regions of the country.
Hope and Gorob form part of a broader wave of mining investment now moving beyond uranium into copper, lithium, rare earths, gold and battery minerals.
The latest announcement also included an extension of the existing funding arrangements between Bezant and its long-term shareholder, Sanderson Capital Partners Limited.
The repayment deadline for a previously drawn £700,000 unsecured convertible loan facility originally entered into in November 2021 has now been extended to 30 September 2027.
The parties also agreed to extend the expiry date of 437.5 million related warrants to 30 June 2028.
The refinancing extension reduces short-term repayment pressure on Bezant as it focuses on bringing the Hope and Gorob operation into production.
Hartree Metals itself is part of the wider Hartree Partners LP group, a global commodities trading and asset management company headquartered in New York, with operations spanning energy, metals, agriculture, and financial markets.
The group employs approximately 5,000 people across more than 50 locations worldwide and is partly owned by Oaktree Capital Management.
