Service
Mining project finance, from first contract to full fleet.
Contract miners and mine developers outgrow single-machine lending fast. We structure the equipment, the working capital and the debt stack as one case, and prepare the lender-grade proposal that carries it.
- Founded by two former bankers
- Commercial and business finance specialists
- Perth based, working Australia wide
- MFAA member
Mining project finance is the structured funding behind a mine development or a contract mining ramp-up: the equipment fleet, the working capital that carries the operation to steady revenue, and the restructure of early, expensive debt once the business proves itself. We work with contract miners, mine developers and mining services groups moving up in scale, from a single machine buyout to multi-facility packages, and we prepare the lender-grade case that carries the deal.
This tier of funding is decided less by any single number than by how the whole story is assembled: the contracts, the counterparties, the security map and the model, presented the way credit teams actually read them. That assembly is the service. The everyday contractor picture sits on our mining services finance page; this page is for when the asks get structural.
Quick facts: mining project finance
| Who it is for | Contract miners, mine developers and scaling mining services groups |
| What it covers | Equipment fleets, working capital, refinances and structured packages |
| The work product | A lender-ready information memorandum and a mapped security position |
| Typical shape | Staged: asset-backed first, sharper pricing as the file matures |
| Where | Perth-based, WA focused, working Australia wide |
| Cost to you | Lender-paid on most facilities; any fee for advisory work agreed in writing first |
Who this page is for
- Contract miners ramping up on new schedule-of-rates contracts
- Mine developers moving projects from development into production
- Mining services groups whose fleet and working capital needs have outgrown machine-by-machine lending
- Groups carrying early-stage funding, rentals or shareholder loans that a maturing business can now restructure
The honest boundary: grassroots exploration with no contracts, assets or revenue is equity territory, not debt, and we will say so early rather than waste your quarter. Where there are contracts, machines or cash flow to lend against, the conversation is real.
What lenders actually assess
The contracts and who signs them. Schedule-of-rates contract mining revenue with solid counterparties is the strongest layer of a mining group's case, because a credit team can model it. Profit-share, toll and offtake-linked income carries more moving parts and gets discounted harder, so the contracted layer should lead the story.
The security map, before anything is added. Registered interests, guarantees and prior-ranking positions accumulate fast in a growing group, and unresolved ranking is where structured deals stall late. We map what exists before proposing what is new.
The entity picture. Operating entities, asset-holding entities and related parties need presenting as one coherent group, with the borrowing entity chosen deliberately rather than by default.
The path to steady state. Lenders fund the bridge to proven cash flow more readily when the model shows exactly where the bridge lands: contracted revenue, costs and the facilities each stage needs.
The staged path beats the big promise
The recurring mistake at this tier is chasing the target structure in one move. The sequencing that works is staged: secure what the assets and contracts support today, often asset-backed and priced for the risk, perform against it, then refinance to sharper terms as trading history and audited numbers build. Expensive early money, rentals and rental-purchase arrangements, shareholder loans, urgency-priced facilities, gets restructured on the same schedule. A funding plan that names its stages honestly gets more lender engagement than a single big ask, and it keeps the business moving while the file matures.
The work product: a case credit teams can say yes to
On structured files the deliverable is an information memorandum: the business, the model reconciled to source documents, the contracts, the security map and the request, framed with the risks and their mitigants stated plainly. It answers the questions credit will ask before they are asked, which is what gets a file read seriously by several lenders at once instead of dying in one queue. Alongside it sit the practical pieces: equipment facilities for the fleet, claims funding for the contracted revenue, tax position structuring where the growth left a balance behind, and the broader commercial finance toolkit for everything around them.
Scaling past machine-by-machine lending? Tell us the contracts, the fleet and what the next 12 months needs to look like. We will tell you what the market will realistically do now, what it will do after performance, and what the case needs to show.
Why groups bring us the structure
Bankers first, brokers second. Rockwall was founded by two former commercial bankers. Structured files are read by credit teams, and we assemble them the way those teams read.
Access to more than 40 lenders. Through our Finsure accreditation we work across the major banks and the specialist funders, and on structured files we map which parts of the stack belong where rather than forcing one lender to hold everything.
Based where the industry is. Perth-based, working with WA mining businesses and their advisers, alongside your accountant rather than around them.
Licensed and accountable. We are MFAA members and Credit Representatives (579184, 579182 and 580433) of Finsure Finance & Insurance Pty Ltd.
Your mining project finance specialist
Rowan Edwards, co-founder. Rowan is a former commercial banker and Credit Representative 579182, and he runs Rockwall's mining project finance work personally. He builds the lender-grade case on structured mining files: the model, the contracts and the security map assembled the way a credit team reads them, staged honestly. More on the team.
Frequently asked questions
What is mining project finance?
It is the structured funding behind a mine development or a contract mining ramp-up: the equipment fleet, the working capital that carries the operation to steady revenue, and the restructure of early, expensive debt once the business proves itself. Unlike a single equipment loan, it is a package of facilities designed together, each secured and priced on its own logic, presented to lenders as one coherent case. The quality of that presentation, the model, the contracts and the security map, decides how the market responds.
How do lenders view a young mining company?
On the strength of what surrounds it. A young trading entity with signed contracts, real assets, experienced principals and a credible parent or related entity behind it can absolutely be funded; the structure just leans on those strengths, asset-backed facilities, guarantees where appropriate, and terms that step up as trading history builds. The honest sequencing is usually staged: secure what the assets and contracts support now, perform, then refinance to sharper pricing as the file matures. Promising the whole target structure on day 1 is how deals stall.
How do lenders read profit-share and toll arrangements?
Differently from contract revenue, and it matters. A schedule-of-rates contract with a solid counterparty is revenue a credit team can model. Profit-share arrangements, toll treatment and offtake-linked income carry more moving parts, commodity price, recovery and reconciliation among them, so lenders discount them harder or look to the contracted layer of the business instead. A group running both usually leads its funding case with the contracted work, and we structure the presentation that way deliberately.
What is an information memorandum and why does it matter?
An information memorandum, or IM, is the document that presents the business, the model, the contracts, the security and the funding request to prospective lenders in the form their credit teams expect. On complex files it does more than describe: it answers the questions credit will ask before they are asked, reconciles the numbers to source documents, and frames the risks honestly with their mitigants. A strong IM gets a file read seriously by more lenders at once. Preparing them is core to how we work on structured deals.
What security do these facilities usually involve?
It varies by facility and it layers. Equipment facilities are secured on the machines themselves. Working capital and claim-based funding look to the receivables. Term facilities may take broader security, and existing arrangements, registered interests, guarantees, prior-ranking positions, have to be mapped before anything new is added, because ranking disputes stall deals late. Director and related-entity guarantees are common. We map the existing security position first, so the structure proposed is one the incumbents and the incoming lenders can both live with.
Why use Rockwall for mining project finance?
Rockwall was founded by two former commercial bankers, and structured mining files are where that background earns its keep: the model, the contracts and the security map assembled the way credit teams read them, an information memorandum that answers the hard questions first, and an honest sequencing of what the market will do now against what it will do after 12 months of performance. We are Perth-based, working with contract miners, developers and mining services groups across WA and Australia.
Get started
Want to talk it through?
Send us a short enquiry. We'll tell you whether it's fundable, how we'd structure it, and which lender we'd take it to. No obligation, and no meeting required to get an answer.
Prefer to talk? Call Rowan on 0483 292 005 or Ari on 0434 929 370.