Harry Winston Diamond Secures $100 Million Mining Credit

Harry Winston Diamond Corporation secured a $100 million revolving credit facility, the company said on Thursday. According to Chairman Robert Gannicott, there is "no 'normal-course' need" for the debt facility.

The three year facility with Standard Chartered Bank bears a 3.5 percent interest rate and has two one-year extensions. The credit line is available to the company and to Harry Winston Diamond Mines Ltd. for general corporate purposes.

"With diamond markets recovering strongly, and capital expenditures for the Diavik Diamond Mine underground development essentially complete, the company's cash position is building and there is no "normal-course" need to draw on this debt facility," Gannicott said. "It does, however, provide strengthened liquidity for the company going forward," he added.

Harry Winston Diamond Company focuses on the mining and retail segments of the diamond industry. Its Diavik mine in Canada required heavy financing recently as it was transformed from an open pit mine to an underground mine.

In March 2009, the company sold a 22.5 percent interest in the limited partnership which holds Harry Winston's 40 percent joint venture in Diavik to gold mining firm Kinross Gold for $150 million.