PolyMet: Glencore Majority Shareholder Following Rights Offering

Glencore now Owns Approximately 72 Percent of PolyMet Common Shares

ST. PAUL, Minn. – PolyMet announced today that preliminary results from a recent rights offering Glencore will now own approximately 72 percent of PolyMet common shares.

Last March Polymet had secured a 12 month payment extension and lowered interest rates on its roughly $152 million of debt owed to Glencore AG, a mining company based out of Switzerland.

In addition, Glencore had also committed to an additional $80 million debenture to PolyMet “to complete pre- and post-permitting work, including detailed engineering and environmental cleanup, and to purchase wetland credit.”

“We thank all of our shareholders for their interest in and support for this project, and are grateful to those who participated in this rights offering,” said Jon Cherry, president and CEO, “The issuance of the federal wetlands permit in March, which brought the project to a fully permitted status, and clearing our balance sheet of debt with this rights offering puts us in a much stronger position to obtain construction financing for the project. We could not have achieved either one of these major milestones without Glencore’s longstanding technical and financial support.”

According to the press release, the common shares were purchased at $0.3881 per share.

The press release also states, the company intends to use the net proceeds of the rights offering and standby commitment for the repayment of the amount that the company is indebted to Glencore under certain debentures plus accrued interest, and fees and expenses associated with the backstop agreement.