Juniors benefit in bullish market

The state’s goldminers may have reaped the lion’s share of the benefits of a buoyant market, but juniors and explorers have also enjoyed rising prospects as a result of surging demand for the commodity.

One of those juniors is De Grey Mining, which has raised more than $130 million this year.

Those funds went towards ongoing exploration efforts in the Pilbara, which is home to a major discovery announced by De Grey last year. It forms part of the company’s Mallina gold project, about 60 kilometres south of Port Hedland.

De Grey is gearing up towards project development, having made a number of milestone announcements for its Hemi prospect since the discovery.

Other juniors of note include Capricorn Metals, which has been developing its Karlawinda gold project in the Pilbara since 2017.

Once commissioned, Karlawinda will become the state’s first standalone 100,000 ounces per annum goldmine and onsite processing facility.

Capricorn raised more than $70 million for that project this year.

At the other end of the market, experienced mining executive Allan Kelly plans to list his new company, Miramar Resources, on the ASX in mid-October.

Mr Kelly previously led the initial public offering for his former company, Doray Minerals, having founded the company in 2009 and led it as managing director until 2016.

In only a few years, Doray transitioned from explorer to producer, and its share price grew from 20 cents to about $1.70.

Doray undertook capital raisings after it made its Andy Well discovery in 2010 and prepared for production in 2013.

However, Mr Kelly told Business News his passion and experience had always been in exploration.

“I’d started Doray as an exploration company, not that dissimilar to Miramar,” he said.

“We went from exploration to mining very quickly. In seven years I’d grown the company from an exploration IPO to an ASX 300 company with two mines.”

Mr Kelly made the decision to leave Doray at the end of 2016, when the company had brought its largest asset – now Silver Lake Resources’ Deflector mine – to production. 

Doray and Silver Lake completed their $615 million merger last April.

Mr Kelly established Miramar Resources during the COVID-19 lockdown, after a brief stint at Riversgold (another company he founded, in 2017).

He said he researched gold projects from his home and attended the RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle earlier this year, where he met with various project owners and later negotiated deals on assets in the eastern Goldfields, Gascoyne and Murchison.

Miramar now has agreements to acquire interests in eight projects across the three regions.

Mr Kelly was positive the company could get some early results, including from its 80 per cent stake in the Gidji project in the Goldfields.

Initially, Miramar intended to raise a maximum of $6 million from its IPO, but after engaging with Sydney-based Shaw and Partners on the transaction, was told there was potential to raise even further funds, given the strength of the market.

Miramar ended up launching an $8 million IPO last month, which closed oversubscribed, Mr Kelly said. 

If it lists in the coming weeks, Miramar will join four other gold companies expected to list before Christmas.

Mr Kelly, who also engaged Shaw and Partners on the Doray IPO, has a project-driven strategy for Miramar.

“The part where you make the most money is when you find something,” he said.

“The strategy with us is to get some good projects, add value to them quickly through exploration, and then I’m open to what happens after that.

“Whether [a project] goes into production … whether we sell it or we JV it, it just depends on what we find, where we find it and how big  it is.”