Sherritt International Corp. said it reached an agreement with some of its bond holders to extend the maturities on its notes as part of a restructuring.

The Toronto-based miner extended the maturities on 44 percent of its C$720 million ($550.8 million) in outstanding senior unsecured debt for three years, according to a company statement Tuesday. The due date on its C$220 million of 8 percent notes maturing in 2018 has been pushed to 2021, on its C$250 million of 7.5 percent bonds to 2023 from 2020, and to 2025 from 2022 on its C$250 million of 7.875 percent notes.

"Upon completion of the extension, there will be no maturities until November 2021, which will bring greater stability to our capital structure and better enable us to weather this ongoing period of weak commodity prices," David Pathe, president and chief executive officer, said in the statement.

The nickel-miner, which has had operations in Cuba for more than two decades and is the largest independent energy producer in the country, has worked to shore up its liquidity as commodity prices bottomed earlier this year.

‘Breathing Room’

Sherritt explored alternatives to improving its capital structure and concluded that extending the maturities was the best option to maximize and preserve value for the company and its stakeholders, according to the statement.

"We believe the extension, if fully executed, would provide some breathing room for Sherritt, and view the announcement as a positive for the shares," RBC Capital Markets analysts led by Fraser Phillips wrote in a research note.

Sherritt’s shares climbed as much as 6.9 percent, the most in two weeks, and were up 5.6 percent to 76 Canadian cents at 10:48 a.m. in Toronto trading on Tuesday. The stock is up 4.1 percent in 2016, rebounding after losing 87 percent in the past three years.

Bondholders who vote in favor of the extension on or prior to a deadline to be established will receive cash equal to 2 percent of the principal amount of notes held or 73.25 warrants for each C$1,000 of principal amount of notes, the company said.