Signs of life are starting to emerge in the sputtering initial public offerings market, with three Western Australian explorers advancing plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange this week following the debut of two others earlier this month.
Most of the floats have been relatively small, except for the $20 million IPO of Dacian Gold launched earlier this week.
Dacian, which is chaired by former Avoca Resources boss Rohan Williams, will issue 40 million shares priced at 50 cents each, the largest gold offering of the year so far.
Dacian is seeking the funds to explore the Mount Morgans project near Laverton in the eastern Goldfields.
“It is our intention to conduct an exploration and resource definition drilling program over the next two years, with a view to developing the Mount Morgans project into a stand-alone gold production centre,” Mr Williams said.
The Mount Morgans project has a JORC compliant gold resource of 842,000 ounces.
Gold, base metals and mineral sands explorer Windward Resources joined the IPO party earlier this week, flagging an offer priced at 20 cents per share, to raise up to $2 million.
The company’s flagship asset is the Fraser Range South project near Albany, which is considered to be highly prospective and is located in close proximity to the Nova discovery, which has sent shares in Sirius Resources skyrocketing over recent months.
Windward announced that it had entered a farm-in and joint venture agreement with a private entity controlled by Sirius Resources boss Mark Creasy, which owns the tenements.
Mr Creasy also holds a 50.19 per cent stake in Windward, through his Yandal Investments vehicle.
Meanwhile, Mozambique-focused Metals of Africa is seeking to list on the ASX next week, after its $3 million IPO priced at 20 cents per share closed oversubscribed.
Metals of Africa holds a portfolio of exploration licenses in Mozambique, and is targeting base metals mineralisation.
The company’s Rio Mazoe project, in Mozambique’s Tete province, was originally identified by BHP as prospective for mineralisation similar to that found in Broken Hill, an area that has produced more than one billion ounces of silver.
Mindax chairman Gilbert George will also chair Metals of Africa.
The three floats follow the successful ASX debut of Boadicea Resources, which raised $1.12 million through its initial public offering earlier this month.
Boadicea’s shares rose as high as 56.5 cents on debut, but have since settled to trade around 41 cents.
Also earlier this month, Victory Mines made a modest debut on the stock market after its initial public offering raised $4 million.
Victory owns various tenements in Western Australia, including possible rare earth assets at its Jungle Well Project, which is about 150km west of Lynas Corporation’s Mt Weld rare earth mine.
Victory’s shares are now trading around 17.5 cents.
Across the board, however, the IPO market is well down on previous form, with 28 completed floats in 2012 raising just over $203 million.
In comparison, there were 80 IPOs in the first nine months of 2011, with $750 million raised.
