By: Creamer media

Trafigura signed the prepayment agreement last month, Ivanhoe said Tuesday in a statement. The deal shows global trading houses — from Mercuria Energy Group to Vitol Group — are continuing to stump up cash to secure future volumes of the metal as competition for supply heats up.

The world’s biggest copper trader will take 20% of the Congo smelter’s anodes for three years, with interest paid at the secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR, plus 3.75%, the statement shows. Ivanhoe’s joint-venture partners — China’s CITIC Metal and Zijin Mining Group — account for the remaining 80%.

Trafigura declined to comment.

The 500 000-ton-a-year smelter, set to be the largest on the African continent, is part of Ivanhoe’s massive Kamoa-Kakula complex, where mining has been disrupted by seismic activity and flooding since May.

Kamoa Copper, the Ivanhoe subsidiary that runs the complex, also extended a $200-million loan facility with South Africa’s Standard Bank for a further 12 months, it said.