Energy Fuels has received conditional credit approval from two Australian government financing institutions for up to A$180 million, about US$126 million, as part of a proposed A$200 million senior project finance debt facility to build Phase 1 of the Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands Project in Victoria, Australia. Export Finance Australia would provide up to A$70 million and the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation up to A$110 million, with the remaining A$20 million expected from commercial lenders. The facilities are expected to carry a 10 year tenor from financial close, priced at BBSY plus an applicable margin, and to fund development, construction, commissioning, financing costs and operating costs during ramp up.
The conditions are the substance. Completion depends on definitive documentation and project documentation, satisfactory due diligence, the balance of the debt from commercial lenders and final approvals, with financial close subject to customary conditions precedent. Even so, conditional approval from both government lenders at this scale is the milestone that lets the project move toward a final investment decision, which the company targets by the end of 2026.
Donald is Energy Fuels’ first large scale source of rare earth minerals, feeding the processing and separation business it is expanding in the United States. Phase 1 is expected to produce an average of about 9,000 tonnes a year of rare earth element concentrate and 225,000 tonnes a year of heavy mineral concentrate over an expected mine life of about 40 years. Energy Fuels has invested about A$60 million, about US$41 million, to date for a 15.3 percent ownership interest, and is earning into a 49 percent interest by funding the first A$183 million of upfront equity.
The Australian commitments sit alongside state support on the other side of the Pacific: in June 2026 the company received a conditional $725 million loan commitment from the US Office of Strategic Capital for expansion of its rare earth processing, separation, metal and alloy capacity in the United States. Read together with today’s other Energy Fuels story, the contrast is sharp. Its upstream feedstock project in Australia is gathering government debt support on schedule, while its downstream magnet acquisition in the United States has lost the anchor customer that underwrote expected plant revenues. Rare earth miners rose 0.47 percent on the day in the latest market tables but are down 3.11 percent on the week.