Cadence Minerals (KDNC ) has received the first tranche of construction finance for the restart of its Azteca plant, part the wider Amapa iron ore project in Brazil, in which it owns a 36.2% stake.
Mobilisation activities are expected to commence next week, and full contractor mobilisation is expected during the second week of June 2026.
The news follows the granting an Installation Licence for the project earlier this month.
Senior operational leadership for the mine and plant operations have been appointed, and additional environmental and licensing advisory support has also been engaged.
"Having just returned from site, I remain encouraged by the practical progress being made at Azteca and the level of operational readiness across the project,” said Kiran Morzaria, chief executive of Cadence.
“During the visit, I worked closely with our JV partners and technical teams on execution scheduling, critical path activities and operational readiness planning. This included recruitment of senior operational personnel for the mine and plant operations, strengthening the site management structure and implementation of site control systems. With the LI granted, funding now progressing and contractor mobilisation expected to commence shortly, Azteca recommissioning is progressing rapidly into the execution phase."
View from Vox
Good to see work at Azteca progressing, even if the timetable has moved around a bit. Amapa as a whole is a very sizeable project, with an NPV of close to US$2 billion, so starting at a relatively modest scale with Azteca makes a lot of sense. Even so, a significant amount of the work required for the restart of the overall project has been completed as part of the process of getting Azteca up and running. As such, Azteca is set to provide not only early cashflow for the company, but also a springboard into the next stage of development.