Perth-based gold explorer Terrain Minerals has announced that the company’s initial public offering of $5 million has closed oversubscribed. The move follows renewed interest in gold which has been somewhat ignored in the recent resources boom as iron ore has hogged the limelight, along with nickel on the minerals side and oil and gas. Terrain managing director Keith Wells said the response to the IPO reflected the quality of its projects, the strength in the gold price and confidence in Terrain’s future. “Terrain’s focus has been on acquiring projects with immediate, high quality drilling targets and the potential to develop mining operations in a relatively short period of time,” he said. The company holds four projects in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. “Collectively the projects we have acquired contain resources of 3.3mt @ 2.05g/t gold (219,000 oz), Mr Wells said. “All the projects are significantly under-explored with known ore positions open along strike and down dip and we plan to drill test every project before the end of 2006.” Before Easter 2006, Terrain’s plans is to complete: the first 2000m drilling program at Celtic, targeting extensions to known gold ore positions; a TEM survey, at Coogee, to further define an attractive nickel target close to Kambalda and a geological mapping program to refine drilling targets at Redcastle. Terrain said it expects to finalise share allocations in the week commencing March 13, with the company likely to list on or about March 23. Terrain’s chairman is geologist Daniel Tucker, the managing director of Carey Mining Pty Ltd – a contract mining company he founded a decade ago – and a director of View Resources Ltd.