By: OrePulse

UK-headquartered gold offtake company SignaFi has secured a $35 million credit facility from a consortium of British and United Arab Emirates investors led by Ronin Commercial Brokers, a UAE-based firm. The facility is available for immediate drawdown, according to the companies.

SignaFi buys gold under multiyear contracts from organized artisanal and small-scale gold mining cooperatives and aggregators. The new funding will be used to expand the company's work with its existing suppliers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and South America, and to let it contract additional cooperatives and aggregators in those regions, the company said.

Stefan Allesch-Taylor, SignaFi's co-founder and chairperson, said artisanal miners produce "one in every five ounces of new gold" worldwide but are largely shut out of formal markets. He said the credit facility gives organized cooperatives "a direct, traceable route to the world gold market."

Allesch-Taylor said the absence of such formal market access leaves artisanal miners exposed, adding that it "leaves the door open to illicit buyers and exploitative practices."

Gerges Raphael, a principal at Ronin Commercial Brokers, said artisanal gold "has long been seen as too opaque for serious capital." He described the new facility as "the start of a significant new channel for responsibly sourced gold."

The $35 million facility brings together British and UAE-based investors under the lead of Ronin Commercial Brokers. Specific terms of the facility, including its duration and interest rate, were not disclosed. The number of cooperatives or artisanal miners expected to benefit from the expanded buying program was also not specified.

SignaFi's existing supplier relationships in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and South America are expected to be the starting point for the expanded purchasing activity made possible by the new facility, with additional cooperatives and aggregators to be added as the program grows, according to the company.