Ivanhoe Electric (TSX: IE) has moved a step closer to financing one of the largest copper projects under development in the United States.
The company said it has received a preliminary project letter from the Export-Import Bank of the United States covering up to $1.1 billion in potential debt financing for its Santa Cruz copper project in Arizona. The letter follows the completion of the agency’s preliminary due diligence and represents a sizable increase over the $825 million letter of interest EXIM issued in April 2025, which carried an indicative 15-year repayment term.
The financing is being pursued under EXIM’s Make More in America initiative, a program aimed at expanding domestic production capacity and shoring up critical supply chains.
Sponsored · Selkirk Copper Mines
A preliminary project letter is not a commitment. Any money still hinges on EXIM completing its review and approval process, with final board consideration anticipated in the spring of 2027. What the letter does signal is that the agency has looked closely at the project and kept moving forward, while raising its potential funding number by roughly a third in the process.
“Receiving our PPL from US EXIM is a major milestone in our project financing process, following a period of strong collaboration and due diligence since we received our initial Letter of Interest from US EXIM in April 2025,” said Taylor Melvin, president and chief executive officer.
Executive Chairman Robert Friedland framed the announcement around demand. “Our country has entered an extraordinary era of demand growth for copper, which is central to all forms of electricity generation, transmission and consumption as well as advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and our national security,” he said, adding that the company is “building a modern American copper mine capable of producing 99.99% pure copper metal, without a smelting process.”
Santa Cruz is an advanced-stage underground project on private land. A preliminary feasibility study released in June 2025 put initial capital costs at $1.24 billion and outlined a 23-year mine life producing roughly 72,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually over the first 15 years, with an after-tax net present value of $1.4 billion at a $4.25-per-pound copper price.
Those figures are due for a refresh. Ivanhoe Electric expects to complete an updated feasibility study in September, incorporating plans for a tunnel boring machine and associated material handling systems.
Ivanhoe Electric last traded at $15.78 on the TSX.
