Gold explorer makes ASX debut

Perth-based Torrens Mining has listed on the stock market after raising $10 million from its initial public offering, with its share price closing up nearly 50 per cent.

Torrens plans to use the funds raised under its IPO to advance exploration efforts in Victoria, South Australia and Papua New Guinea where the company has gold, copper and cobalt tenements.

That includes the Mt Piper gold project, which sits 30 kilometres from Kirkland Lake Gold’s Forestville mine in Victoria where Torrens has budgeted more than $5 million towards exploration over the next two years.

The company also has a farm-in deal over the Elizabeth Creek copper-cobalt project in SA with recently listed Coda Minerals, which is funding a current drilling program. Torrens owns 49 per cent of the project.

The business issued 50 million shares under its IPO, led by Taylor Collison, which was priced at 20 cents and closed oversubscribed on December 4.

Its share price opened at 32 cents today, before reaching a high of 35 cents and closing at 30 cents.

Chairman Bill Bloking, which has about a 10 per cent stake in Torrens, said the business received strong support from investors during the IPO process.

“The strong investor interest in Torrens’ IPO and its associated exploration portfolio represents a strong endorsement of our assets and management team and the strength of our core strategy – which is to discover and develop gold and copper deposits in Australia and PNG,” he said.

Managing director Stephen Shedden said Torrens’ ASX debut followed “a lot of hard work and dedication by all stakeholders involved”.