07:45 AM EDT, 05/23/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Perpetua Resources ( PPTA ) traded 3.3% higher at last look Friday in Nasdaq pre-market trading as the company submitted an application to the Export-Import Bank of the United States to increase potential debt financing for the Stibnite gold project in Idaho to US$2 billion from US$1.8 billion.

The company said the increase in potential funding reflects the higher estimated number of job-years indicated by the financial update and basic engineering work completed in the first quarter. The bank extended a non-binding letter of interest to Perpetua in April 2024 for the US$1.8 billion. If approved, the debt financing could fund a majority of the project's development costs to become the only domestically mined source of antimony, the company said.

"The Stibnite gold project is poised to be a national strategic asset for domestic antimony production and is also a world class gold asset," said Jon Cherry, president and CEO of Perpetua Resources ( PPTA ). "EXIM financing could play a pivotal role in advancing the project to production so we can reestablish a secure supply of antimony for the U.S. for decades to come."