The mining fleet tender at Los Azules could bring the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank) into McEwen Copper's planned $2.4 billion debt package.
The fleet, the drills, loading equipment and haul trucks that will work the open pit of the copper project in San Juan province, is in final evaluation, and its origin matters because each export credit agency (ECA) finances what is bought in its own country. EXIM Bank signed a framework with the Argentine government on Sept. 23 to mobilize up to $7 billion through 2027, with critical minerals among its priority sectors.
EXIM Bank has made no commitment to Los Azules. Whether it takes a tranche depends on where McEwen Copper sources the rest of its equipment and services, on its offtake contracts and on loan tenor, none of which is settled.
The first award went to Finland. McEwen Inc., the Toronto-based miner that owns 46.3% of McEwen Copper, said in its Aug. 27 statement, the same one that announced a $240 million loan for engineering and early works, that engineering for the main process equipment packages, covering solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW), sulfuric acid and crushing, had been awarded to Espoo-based Metso.
The statement put selection of the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contractor in the fourth quarter of 2026, and the final investment decision (FID) and full project financing in mid-2027. Andes Corporación Minera, the Argentine company that holds Los Azules, is listed on the official platform of Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) with a committed investment of $2.672 billion.
How Export Credit Financing Works
Michael Meding, vice president and general manager of McEwen Copper, laid out the mechanism in an Aug. 20 interview with Shale24. The agencies, he said, provide financing "tied to the purchase of something: it can be a service, it can be a good."
He added that 60% of what the project requires is imported and that typical conditions are "terms of 10, 15 years" at a cost of "SOFR plus 250 to 450 basis points," a reference to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), the benchmark for dollar lending. Société Générale, sole financial adviser on the project debt since May, is structuring a package Meding put at $2.4 billion “or a little more.”
Metso Took the Process Plant; the Fleet Is Still Open
The starting point is the feasibility study of October 2025. The company then reported preliminary proposals from manufacturers including Komatsu and Sandvik and from European ECAs, covering 85–100% of the main mechanical equipment and 50% of local construction costs. Together they would allow financing of more than $1.1 billion across five blocks: crushing and materials handling, the SX-EW plant, the acid plant, the drilling fleet and the load-and-haul fleet. The first three match the packages whose engineering Metso now holds. The other two make up the mining fleet.
Among those manufacturers, Komatsu is headquartered in Tokyo and builds its electric-drive mining trucks in Peoria, Illinois. For an ECA, what counts is the plant the equipment ships from: EXIM Bank's content rule sets its support at the lesser of 85% of the export contract value or 100% of the U.S. content. Meding told Shale24 the company is in talks with agencies from North America, Europe and Japan.
EXIM Bank's statement on the Build the Future framework lists among its priorities the development and processing of critical minerals through the deployment of U.S. equipment, technologies and mining expertise. In its analysis of the Andes-Atlantic Corridor, the U.S.-Argentina investment initiative launched the same day, Shale24 noted that the agency's tranche in any project depends on how much of what is awarded is sourced from the United States.
Three Conditions for EXIM Bank Financing
The first is the origin of purchases, which at Los Azules runs through the mining fleet and the EPCM contractor, because services count too.
The second is commercial. EXIM Bank's Supply Chain Resiliency Initiative finances mining projects outside the United States that have signed long-term offtake contracts with U.S. companies, and sizes the amount according to the share of production committed to those buyers. Copper has been on the official U.S. critical minerals list since November 2025. The Los Azules feasibility study envisages producing cathodes for sale in Argentina or in international markets.
The third is tenor. EXIM Bank's Country Limitation Schedule, in effect since July 30, allows transactions with Argentine borrowers of up to seven years, a term that combines the disbursement and repayment periods. Meding spoke of 10 to 15 years. For tenors the schedule leaves uncovered, its Note 13 provides for structures that generate revenue offshore and deposit it in an account acceptable to the bank.
The framework also has a front-runner. As Shale24 reported, EXIM Bank issued a non-binding indicative term sheet for up to $6 billion for Argentina LNG, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project led by YPF, Argentina's state-controlled oil and gas company. That is equivalent to about 86% of the cap, and the framework runs through 2027, the year in which McEwen Copper places its investment decision.
The two awards McEwen Copper still has ahead, the mining fleet and the fourth-quarter EPCM contract, will show which countries supply the rest of the equipment, and therefore which agencies have purchases of their own to finance at Los Azules before the mid-2027 decision.