Gold explorer Torque Metals is launching an initial public offering to raise up to $7 million ahead of an ASX listing.

While the prospectus is not yet publicly available, the company is aiming to raise between $4.5 and $7 million via the offer of up to 35 million shares at 20c each.

The IPO is set to open on October 26 and close on November 30, with listing penned in for December 12.

Torque has two gold projects, which also host tellurium and bismuth, near the town of Southern Cross in the Yilgarn goldfields of Western Australia.

Tellurium is alloyed with copper and stainless steel to make these metals more workable.

It is added to lead to decrease the corrosive action of sulfuric acid in batteries and to improve lead’s strength and hardness. It is also used as a colouring agent in ceramics.

Bismuth, meanwhile, is mixed with other metals — such as lead, tin, iron or cadmium — to form low-melting alloys.

Torque’s Bullfinch project is located right near the unowned 1.5 million ounce “Copperhead” gold mine.

The Southern Cross/Bullfinch district has yielded over 15 million ounces of gold to date.

Torque exercised its option to buy the Bullfinch project from Talga Resources (ASX:TLG) in July.

The company says the area has over 200 walk-up drill targets – including a “promising” gold, tellurium and bismuth prospect.

Historical rock chip samples and drilling has returned grades of as high as 30 grams per tonne (g/t). Anything over about 5g/t is usually considered high-grade.

Torque plans to use the cash raised in the IPO to fund more targeted exploration drilling.