Practice Area 03 · Natural Resources Financing
Social mining.
Resource wealth that stays where it is found.
Heitaria structures the financing of raw material extraction and processing projects under a social mining model: projects in which the host country, its regions and the communities on the land share in the value created — by design, in the contracts, from the first day.
The Model at a Glance
01 · Project
Mine & plant
Finished product, processed in the country. Sponsor funds 100 % of equity.
↓ Profit
02 · Profit split
State
Majority stake · no cash in, plus taxes and royalties → National budget
Private partners
Minority stake, carry all the risk → Dividends to sponsors
↓
03 · Ring-fenced share
fixed %
Fixed by contract, for the life of the project
↓
04 · Four channels
Region
Per inhabitant, across municipalities
Territory
Direct share for the title-holding land
Community
Land use, impact, water
Closure fund
Deposited from year one
Separate channels · none is deducted from another
05 · How the money is spent
1 · Communities decide
2 · A trust finances
3 · A foundation builds
4 · Public owner operates · open accounts
No figures: the structure is the same whatever the project. Percentages and amounts are set per mandate.
The Challenge
Resource wealth has too often left poverty behind it.
Value leaves
Raw in, finished elsewhere. For decades, raw materials left producing countries unprocessed. The value was added — and the industrial jobs created — somewhere else.
Benefits don’t arrive
Revenue flows to the capital; the impact stays local. Regions next to world-class deposits still lack drinking water, schools and health care.
Projects stall
The main risk is no longer geological. Today most resource projects are delayed by conflict, contested consent and lost trust — and a project without a social licence cannot be financed.
Social mining turns that risk into the foundation of the investment case.
Six Principles of Social Mining
01
State partnership without state cash
The host state holds a majority stake in the project company without contributing capital. Private sponsors fund the equity; the state receives its share of profits in addition to taxes and royalties.
02
A ring-fenced share for the region
A fixed percentage of the private partners’ profits is reserved for the producing region — written into the contracts, kept outside the national budget, for the life of the project.
03
Value added in the country
Raw materials are processed into finished, specification-grade products in the host country. Industrial jobs, skills and know-how stay where the resource is.
04
Consent before construction
No field work begins before free, prior and informed consent, given in the communities’ own assemblies and under their own protocols, in line with ILO Convention 169.
05
Water and energy protected
Process designs that draw no fresh water from the territory and run on renewable energy. The scarcest local resources are protected, not consumed.
06
Closure secured from year one
A closure and remediation fund is deposited from the start and remains enforceable even if the operator no longer exists. Water systems, roads and buildings pass to the community.
Capital Structure
A social mining project is financed like any large infrastructure asset, with the social commitments written into the structure, not added on top of it.
Sponsor equity
Private sponsors fund all of the equity. The state’s majority stake is carried and requires no cash contribution.
Guaranteed senior debt
Long-term loans backed by export credit and investment guarantee schemes, for example the German Federal Government’s untied loan guarantees for raw materials (UFK) and Hermes export credit cover for equipment and technology.
Development finance
Development finance institutions and multilateral lenders for the social, water and energy components.
Offtake and pre-purchase
Long-term offtake and pre-purchase agreements with industrial buyers secure revenue and support debt capacity.
International standards
Structured to the IFC Performance Standards and the Equator Principles, so that the project is bankable for international lenders from the outset.
Benefit Sharing · Who Receives What
The State
Majority stake
Its share of the profits, plus taxes and royalties in full.
The Region
Ring-fenced fund
A fixed share of private profits, allocated per inhabitant across the region’s municipalities.
The Territory
Direct channel
A direct share for the territory that holds title to the land, allocated by its own representative organisation.
The Community
Land use and services
Compensation for land use and impact while the plant operates, plus services such as drinking water.
Separate channels: none is deducted from another.
Communities decide
Communities propose and prioritise projects in their own assemblies.
A trust finances
Funds are released per project against independent certification.
A foundation builds
Works are contracted with pre-qualified companies: weeks, not years.
Open accounts
The public owner operates the asset. Every allocation is published and independently audited.
Market Access · The EU Battery Regulation
For battery raw materials, social mining is now also a condition of the European market.
From 2027
Buyers must audit the source. From August 2027, companies selling batteries in the European Union must carry out due diligence on the lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite in them, verified by an independent body (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542).
What is checked
Water, communities, labour, carbon. The Regulation names the environment and human health, human and labour rights, and community life, including that of indigenous peoples, as the risks a buyer must examine.
Our approach
Built in, not retrofitted. Community agreement before construction, open accounts and independent monitoring are part of how we structure a project from the start. They are also the evidence a European buyer’s auditor will ask for.
A project that can show its social licence can sell into Europe.
Our Services
Feasibility and financial modelling
Techno-economic and project-finance models, scenario and sensitivity analysis, bankable feasibility.
Capital structuring
Equity, debt and guarantee structures that carry the state’s stake and the social commitments.
Lender and agency placement
Preparation and placement with export credit agencies, development finance institutions and commercial banks.
Offtake and pre-purchase
Structuring long-term sales and pre-purchase agreements with industrial buyers.
Benefit-sharing design
Channels, allocation rules, trust and foundation structures, and transparency and audit frameworks.
ESG and governance
IFC Performance Standards, Equator Principles, respect for consultation protocols, and closure guarantees.
Focus: critical raw materials for the energy transition, with particular experience in Latin America.
Contact
Discuss a resource project with us.
In confidence.
In confidence.
Whether you are a sponsor, a government or a lender: initial conversations are without obligation and held under strict non-disclosure.