West Perth-based minerals explorer Central Asia Resources Ltd has closed its initial public offer fully subscribed, raising $5 million for the acquisition of gold and base metals exploration projects.
West Perth-based minerals explorer Central Asia Resources Ltd has closed its initial public offer fully subscribed, raising $5 million for the acquisition of gold and base metals exploration projects.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Kazakhstan-focused Australian minerals exploration company Central Asia Resources Limited ("Central Asia") has closed its Initial Public Offer (IPO) to raise A$5m following overwhelming interest from Australian and overseas investors.
The Western Australian-based company has applied to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) for a listing date, expected to be within the next two weeks.
Central Asia launched its IPO to raise a minimum of A$3.5m by the issue of 14,000,000 shares at 25c each on 11 May 2007. Overwhelming demand from retail and institutional investors saw the Company offer an additional 6,000,000 shares, raising a further A$1.5m.
Funds raised from the IPO will enable Central Asia to acquire a 60% interest in Golden Eagle Investment Resources Limited ("Golden Eagle"), which holds interests in four highly prospective gold and base metals exploration projects in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Eastern Europe.
Central Asia's Kazakhstan projects, K2, Akbakai South, Balkhash and Boguty Corridor, cover approximately 3200kmĀ², with the previous owners estimating the projects hosts a conceptual million ounces of gold combined in Russian and unclassified resource estimates.
Central Asia Director Angela Dent said the company was pleased with such strong investor interest in the IPO process and was looking forward to progressing its highly advanced projects upon listing.
"On listing we plan to finalise results from a recent drilling campaign at the K2 project and continue an aggressive exploration program so as to prove up an interim JORC-compliant resource as soon as possible," Ms Dent said.
"Since July last year we have invested more than A$1m in a drill program to validate historical drilling data and test known extensions of the current mineralisation across a number of the projects. We now intend to use this new data to actively explore each of the seven prospect areas in further detail.
"Kazakhstan is a superb location for our mining projects - the country has excellent road, rail and telecommunications infrastructure - and our company has strong local contacts, experience and geological expertise in the region, which will be a great advantage as we progress the development of our projects.