Past Clients

Rock was engaged to assist the CFO with general corporate support related to the 2022 debt raising, and then was mandated to secure debt funding related to the development of the co’s Federation mine in NSW, one of the best gold & polymetallic discoveries in NSW.

Rock was engaged to firstly refine the clients financial model checking all inputs and calculations, as well as writing the IM, and then secure funding.

Rock was engaged to refine the clients financial model checking all inputs and calculations, and liaising with Site staff as well as writing an Investor summary.

Rock was engaged to firstly refine the clients financial model checking all inputs and calculations, and secure equipment finance., and thereafter secure a larger acquisition finance piece

Rock was engaged to firstly refine the clients financial model checking all inputs and calculations, as well as writing the credit IM, and then secure funding.

Rock was mandated to sell four items of gold and copper processing plant, valued at > $30m, and most of it new/ never used, and still in packaging. Rock was responsible for all aspects of the sale process from setting up data room, to marketing, and then deal negotiation, and terms sheet documentation with buyer. Rock’s large network in the Australian mining sector, enabled identification of a buyer for the CIL within one day of sell mandate being awarded.

Metro Mining engaged Rock to secure project finance debt funding from Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to fund expansion of their Bauxite Hills mine near Weipa. Approval was received on 12th of November 2019 for $47m. The funding is to buy a new floating shiploader. Such a vessel will allow loading of larger ships (Panamax and Cape versus Utramax) and also at a faster rate, thus delivering lower opex costs on a $/ t basis. The loan will enable the expansion to proceed, thus lead to 50 more jobs across mine and port, and more than $500 million of public benefits to the local and Cairns areas, over the life of the mine.

The loan from NAIF is at concessional rates, and long repayment tenor (7 years) thus also reducing Metro’s cost of funding.

Our role encompassed all aspects of dealing with NAIF and legal counsel, from creating the project finance financial model to writing all the various documents NAIF require (such as public benefit analysis, indigenous engagement strategy, Australian industry participation plan, and the investment proposal), Loan structuring and negotiation, all legal documentation, and review of, or arranging, all due diligence required (as typical in a project finance loan: market, technical, environmental, social and governance, insurance, legal).

If you have a project in Northern Australia which requires funding, which has an infrastructure element and can also illustrate substantial public benefit – feel free to contact us. We can explain the complete NAIF debt process.

Adani engaged Rock to assist in a wide range of matters related to construction of the Carmichael Coal project and 382km rail line, including

securing a $900m loan from Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), and
securing > $1.2billion of Export Credit finance and Equipment Financing. 

This required execution of a wide range of tasks: financial modelling, dealing with all potential lenders (NAIF , ECA’s, banks), term sheet review, finalisation of BFS for both mine and rail (38 chapters), daily liaison with our engineers across mine and rail, investor facing role/answering all DD questions from our global Investors, and assisting the CFO in all matters. We had ownership of the financial model which aggregated >AUD$4bn of Capex and Opex across the 3 sub-projects of Mine, Below Rail, and Above Rail, which contained > AUD$3bn p.a. in revenues.  We were also was responsible for all financial information disseminated externally re this project. We also worked on funding of the solar farms Adani is building in Australia at Rugby Run (NSW) and Whyalla (SA).

Link Housing engaged Rock to assist in their bid to access the SAHF Fund (NSW Govt) and debt financing from CEFC. This required execution of a wide range of tasks, from interrogation of all inputs to creating the financial model, and liaising with banker CEFC (Clean Energy Finance Corporation).

BHP’s coal division, BMA, engaged Rock in 2014/2015 in the Brisbane business analysis/ evaluation team. Main tasks were to conduct valuations on existing and potential projects, with particular projects being:

BMA’s Hay Point Coal terminal – working with infrastructure team to assess and then model future growth and maintenance options
Caval Ridge & Daunia coal mines: performing PIR (Peer Investment Reviews), where actual performance is compared to what was forecast i.e. what was approved at project sanction date.
Goonyella Riverside coal mines: working with mine planners to identify the optimal mine plan for expansion: assessing many different pit mining sequences to report back to the Head of Business Evaluation, which would produce the best NPV. This involved extensive interrogation of data and all calculations, working closely with the mine planning team, and a robust knowledge of coal mining.
South Walker Creek and Poitrel coal mines: audit and update of assumptions
All seven BMA coal mines: comparison of all key inputs and outputs across extraction, processing, and logistics (port and rail) in order to benchmark, and identify any major difference, and reasons for such.

Rock was engaged by Guildford Coal (was ASX: GUF, now Terra Energy) to execute various tasks:

Audited and re-built the existing operational model, covering their 7 Mongolian coal mines and rail project (from Mongolian mine south to the Chinese border), to produce valuations.
Travelled to Mongolia to meet with the onsite mine team to further refine the valuation model. Also in Mongolia, completed due diligence on a potential target owned by our JV partner Noble Trading.
Assisted the company in other facets: ASK Listing governance / project finance modelling / legal due diligence/ slide decks re potential MA& activity / created financial models and presentations for a potential refinancing.

Rock delivered consulting services to Julius Bär staff across corporate finance. Julius Bar is one of Switzerland’s leading private banks, and the consulting was tailored to client’s specific requirements, and delivered in German.

Rock delivered financial training to financial staff from Barrick Gold, PNG and Zambia, who flew to Cairns for the training. We were able to illustrate how many inbuilt functions in Excel are perfect for the mining sector, and can make daily tasks much easier and quicker: from cash flow forecasting and budgeting, to charting changes in performance via waterfall charts, and valuations and project finance calculations

Siemens AG, Head Office in Nuremberg, Germany engaged Rock to assist in creating a new template financial model for their global health division that they could use going forward when bidding on projects globally. We delivered an easier-to-use, and more transparent model where users could clearly see the link between inputs and outputs, as well as conduct easy scenario and sensitivity analysis. This will allow Siemens to submit bids faster and also better explain the outcomes to their clients. We also gave training to the team in Advanced Financial Modelling.

On 28 August 2012, we held a launch function for our first European office in Milano, Italia. The function was held at the Milano Park Hyatt, and thankyou to all who came. We had attendees from the Italian Banking, Private Equity, Real Estate and Industry

Rock audited and added project finance calculations to UCL’s operational cashflow model for their marine phosphate mine in Namibia, in preparation for discussions with banks re Project Finance.

Rock was engaged to:

Audit, amend and update the existing financial model for Aquila’s Washpool coal mine in readiness for its sale, as well as write the finance chapters of the BFS, and liaise with Advisers on the sale (Deutsche Bank and UBS)

Audit and update the financial model for Eagle Downs underground coal mine, and run various sensitivities for management , as well as providing data for court documents re litigation with 50% owner Vale.

Refine the Isaac Plains model adding new assumptions and running many cases: particularly decision between toll washing vs building a CHPP onsite

Work on the WICET (Wiggins Island Coal terminal) port application : populating the financial model, and then the application, and meeting with WICET owner to discuss application.

Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) was the result of various companies merging (NQM and Catalpa and Conquest), and thus ended up owning five gold mines but also 5 different, non-uniform financial models, created by different people. Rock was engaged to complete 7 separate modelling assignments:

(Five models) : We created a standard valuation model template and using historical models transformed them into a new model, for each of the five gold mines: Pajingo, Mt Rawdon, Edna May, Cracow and Mt Carlton. We also interrogated all assumptions with site staff and operational team (amending if necessary), and created input sheets and sensitivity analysis sheets thus allowing EVN to easily change inputs and run various cases.
Created a new company-level valuation model, aggregating the above 5 mines, and with spare room to easily add as many mines as needed.
Created a project finance model for a potential debt financing of one of the mines

Rock created the financial model for Serco’s winning bid for the 20 year operations contract of the new Fiona Stanley Hospital, to be built in Murdoch (Perth, Australia). The model aggregated inputs over 23 service lines and required detailed interrogation of all data and discussion with all subject-matter experts. It also required extensive calculations re the revenue mechanism which depended on KPI’s being met as well as abatement regime.

Serco was announced preferred bidder in November 2011, and the global bid team moved from London and Sydney to Perth for 7 months where we finalised the contract with the client (the West Australian Dept of Health), and extensive changes were required to the model as we further refined the inputs, and the calculations in the contract changed.

Rock audited, amended and updated the existing financial model, and added valuation and project finance pages, re coal mines owned by Resource Generation, in Botswana, South Africa.

The founder of Rock, Emma McPherson was appointed to the panel for Kaplan’s subject Mining Valuation: Emma wrote and marked the exam, where students had to create a financial model based on the Annual Report of Avoca Resources (subsequently purchased by Anatolia Minerals).