Published: May 27, 2025 | Share This

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Perpetua Resources said it has submitted its formal application to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for potential debt financing of up to $2 billion to construct the Stibnite Gold Project. Upon receipt of Perpetua’s application, EXIM is expected to conduct its standard due diligence consistent with EXIM’s policies and legal requirements, and to review the project’s eligibility under the relevant initiatives.

Perpetua’s formal application follows extensive ongoing engagement with EXIM’s underwriting team and receipt of the final federal permit for the project. EXIM extended a non-binding letter of interest (LOI) to Perpetua in April 2024 for potential debt financing up to $1.8 billion through EXIM’s Make More in America (MMIA) initiative and China and Transformational Exports Program (CTEP).

The increase in the application amount to $2 billion from the $1.8 billion LOI reflects the increase in the estimated number of job-years indicated by the financial update and basic engineering work completed in the first quarter of 2025. The application comes on the heels of the recent executive order aimed at increasing government financing available for mineral production.

“The Stibnite Gold Project is poised to be a national strategic asset for domestic antimony production and is also a world class gold asset. EXIM financing could play a pivotal role in advancing the Project to production so we can reestablish a secure supply of antimony for the United States for decades to come,” said Jon Cherry, president and CEO of Perpetua Resources.

If approved, EXIM debt financing could fund a majority of the project’s development costs and help the United States more effectively compete with China. In 2024, the People’s Republic of China blocked the global export of antimony, effectively cutting off the United States and the rest of the world from this critical mineral that is essential to national defense. The Stibnite Gold Project offers a near-term solution to bringing antimony production back to the United States, while simultaneously producing gold and providing environmental restoration to the historical Stibnite Mining District.

Earlier this month, Perpetua received its final federal permit, the clean water act section 404 permit, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, marking the culmination of eight years of interagency federal permitting.

With receipt of this Army Corps permit, along with previous authorizations from the U.S. Forest Service and agencies of the state of Idaho, the company is focused on obtaining its few remaining state permits and securing financing to commence construction.

Perpetua Resources, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is focused on the exploration, site restoration and redevelopment of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho that are encompassed by the Stibnite Gold Project. The project is one of the highest-grade, open pit gold deposits in the United States and is designed to apply a modern, responsible mining approach to restore an abandoned mine site and produce both gold and the only mined source of antimony in the United States. Further advancing Perpetua Resources’ ESG and sustainable mining goals, the project will be powered by the lowest carbon emissions grid in the nation and a portion of the antimony produced from the project will be supplied to Ambri, a U.S.-based company commercializing a low-cost liquid metal battery essential for the low-carbon energy transition. Perpetua Resources has been awarded a Technology Investment Agreement of $59.2 million in Defense Production Act Title III funding to advance construction readiness and permitting of the project. Antimony trisulfide from Stibnite is the only known domestic source of antimony that can meet U.S. defense needs for many small arms, munitions, and missile types.

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