• Nordic Nickel knocked it out of the park yesterday in June’s first ASX listing
  • PGM explorer Southern Palladium, uranium/vanadium play Uvre Limited and NT explorer Kingsland Minerals due to follow in the next week

Australian nickel companies have had plenty of joy with old assets from Outoukumpu, the Finnish stainless steel giant that once searched far and wide for sources of the base metal.

Then a piddling junior explorer, Western Areas (ASX:WSA) picked up the Forrestania assets in WA off the Finnish major after a lull in the nickel price, before bursting to life as a leading mid-tier when the commodity boomed just five years later.

Western Areas shareholders yesterday approved a scheme that will deliver them more than $1.2 billion in cash to part ways with their company, which is being sold to fellow nickel miner IGO (ASX:IGO).

After 20 years (and plenty of dividends) the payday has finally come.

Similarly, our first IPO of June Nordic Nickel (ASX:NNL) is chasing up some old Outoukumpu targets at its 395sqkm Pulju Project over in Finland.

It received plenty of love from investors on opening day as well, closing 16% up at 29c after raising an impressive $12 million at 25c a pop.

Outoukumpu drilled 51 holes at Nordic’s granted Hotinvaara exploration licence back in the ’80s and ’90s, where it was targeting shallow open pit nickel deposits.

A head start of sorts, Nordic is expecting to deliver an initial JORC resource estimate on the back of re-assays from the remaining core within months of listing.

It is also planning to drill deeper to make discoveries akin to Anglo American’s 44Mt development stage Sakatti nickel-copper-PGE project, one of three major orebodies in the Nordic neighbourhood along with Boliden’s 307Mt Kevitsa nickel-copper-gold open cut and Agnico Eagle’s 7.4Moz Kittila mine.

MD Todd Ross says Finland remains underexplored despite this bountiful endowment.

“Our vision is to discover and develop traceable, sustainably sourced, low-carbon, high purity class-1 nickel sulphides in Finland, at a time when demand for battery metals is growing exponentially,” he said.

 

Western Areas (ASX:WSA) and Nordic Nickel (ASX:NNL) share price today:

 

 

Who else is listing in the next 7 days?

Upcoming listings on the ASX come with the caveat these dates are always subject to change for a variety of reasons.

But at the moment there are 12 floats projected to land on the ASX boards this month, three of which are due in the next seven days.

 

UVRE LIMITED (ASX:UVA)

Listing: June 7
IPO: $6m at $0.20

The company plans to explore and potentially develop its East Canyon project in Utah.

The project is prospective for both uranium and vanadium, two minerals anticipated to play a key role in the generation and storage of low-carbon energy.

Up to $1.5 million of the offer was made available to shareholders in Red Dirt Metals (ASX:RDT) which soared last year on a lithium discovery at its Mt Ida project in WA.

Red Dirt folded the East Canyon project into the float.

 

Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG)

Listing: June 8

IPO: $5.5m at $0.20

This company has four projects across the NT, including the Allamber uranium and copper project, the Shoobridge uranium and gold project, the Woolgni gold project and the Mt Davis copper and gold project.

Kingsland also holds the Lake Johnston nickel and cobalt project in WA, 36km from the Emily Ann and Maggie Hays nickel deposits and Lake Johnston concentrator owned by Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS).

 

Southern Palladium (ASX:SPD)

Listing: 8 June

IPO: $19m at $0.50

The platinum group minerals (PGM) explorer and developer will acquire a 70% interest in private company Miracle Upon Miracle Investments on listing – which holds the Bengwenyama PGM project in South Africa.

That will make it one of a handful of pure play PGM companies on the ASX.

The project currently has a JORC 2012 Inferred Resource of 18.80 million oz (3 PGE + gold) and drilling is planned to kicked off shortly after listing.

Bengwenyama is on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex, the largest source of platinum and palladium ore in the world.

South Africa is the only country that challenges Russia in its palladium output – a virtual supply duopoly that sees the countries combined produce around 80% of the world’s mined ounces.

The proportions of palladium and platinum at the project are relatively even at ~44% each, which CEO Johan Odendaal says gives the company optionality as conditions for palladium and platinum shift.

The metals are used largely in catalytic converters, devices in cars and bikes which moderate their emissions.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Nordic Nickel is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.