Champion Iron (ASX: CIA) (TSX: CIA) (“Champion” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that they secured debt financing conditional commitments of USD180 million for its subsidiary Québec Iron Ore Inc. (“QIO”) from la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (“Caisse”) and Sprott Resource Lending (“Sprott”). This financing is part of the restart of Bloom Lake Iron Ore Mine’s operations, located near Fermont, Québec.

With the completion and filing of the Bloom Lake Feasibility Study earlier this year, demonstrating that mining operations at Bloom Lake are financially viable, Champion has focused on securing the financing required for the iron ore mine’s restart, potentially as early as Q1 2018.

Following the completion of the CAD40 million bridge financing announced in May, which included a CAD20 million loan from Sojitz Corporation, QIO and Champion announces it has obtained further debt financing conditional commitments for up to USD180 million to partially fund the costs of resuming the operations at Bloom Lake.

Champion and QIO Chairman and CEO, Michael O’Keeffe, said:

“We recognize and greatly appreciate the confidence and support shown by Caisse and Sprott in providing a key element of the required financing to restart Bloom Lake.

We are pleased to be working with the teams at both Caisse and Sprott and look forward to bringing Bloom Lake back into production, which would benefit not just Champion, QIO and its shareholder and investor base, but also the many local and regional interests as we establish ourselves as a significant player in the Labrador Trough.”

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