Western Australia-based gold company Mundo Minerals Ltd will list on the ASX later this month after closing its $15 million IPO oversubscribed.
Western Australia-based gold company Mundo Minerals Ltd will list on the ASX later this month after closing its $15 million IPO oversubscribed.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Australian-domiciled international gold company, Mundo Minerals Limited, is set to make its debut on the Australian Stock Exchange in mid-November after closing its $15 million Initial Public Offering (IPO) oversubscribed. The IPO, which comprised the offer of 50 million shares at 30 cents each, attracted strong interest from a range of Australian and international institutional and retail investors.
The successful public share offer - which follows an initial $3.5 million seed capital raising in May this year - is one of the largest in the Australian gold sector in recent times. It is designed to position Mundo as a mid-tier Australian gold production house, with sufficient capital to explore and develop its diversified portfolio of quality gold assets located in Brazil and Peru.
The Company already has key infrastructure and personnel in place at its projects, which include the advanced Engenho Gold Project in Brazil, the Torrecillas Project in Peru and the Tocantins Project in Brazil. Engenho is a near-term production asset targeting first gold production within 18 months, while the other two are substantial exploration assets regarded as having multi-million ounce exploration potential.
"We will hit the ground running as soon as we complete our ASX listing, having done a lot of hard work over the past year to put in place all the necessary infrastructure, systems and personnel in South America," said Mundo's Chief Executive Officer, Mr John Langford. "We will commence intensive diamond drilling programs at both Torrecillas and Tocantins before the end of the year, and accelerate pre-development activities at Engenho."
"Activities already underway at Engenho include technical re-modelling and upgrading of the orebody based on all available data, letting of key contracts for engineering and process development, and other key long-lead items for the feasibility study on the project," he added.
Approximately $3.7 million of the IPO funds have been allocated to capital and operating expenditure required to bring the Engenho Project into production within an 18-month timeframe. The Project, which has a contained resource of 1.13 million tonnes at 5.82g/t gold, was previously operated by AngloGold Ashanti Limited, which closed it in 2004 after treating some 171,257 tonnes of ore from an open pit through a conventional Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) treatment facility.
Mr Langford said Mundo had a balanced mix of assets, with Engenho representing a low-risk, near-term production opportunity to generate early cash flow to underpin the Company's broader objectives of building multiple production centres at its Torrecillas and Tocantins projects.
"Our vision is to build a substantial mid-tier gold company with a focus on South America, which is a part of the world that we believe offers enormous opportunity and yet remains relatively under-explored," he added.
Mundo has assembled a high-profile Board and management team headed by prominent Australian mining executive, Mr George Jones, as non-executive Chairman, and Mr John Langford, as CEO. The Board also includes well-known mining executives, Mr Barry Eldridge and Mr Brian Hurley, prominent Perth-based corporate lawyer Mr Rob McKenzie and Brazilian-based Executive Director, Mr Mike Schmulian.
