With Australia’s gold sector at fever pitch, North Stawell Minerals (NSM) is hitting the IPO trail to raise $20m to fund the exploration and development of prospective gold tenements along-strike and to the immediate north of the Stawell gold mine in Victoria, Australia.
Through the IPO, NSM is offering 40 million shares at an initial price of 50c per share. The offer is scheduled to open to investors on August 6 with the company anticipated to start trading on the ASX on September 16.
The privately owned Stawell gold mine has produced around 5 million ounces of gold, while the town of Stawell forms a corner point in Victoria’s Gold Triangle with Bendigo and Ballarat.
The mine returned to production in 2019 and currently pours gold twice a week.
Gold potential
NSM believes there is potential for the discovery of more large gold mineralised systems under cover and plans to test 51km of northerly strike extension of the Stawell Mineralised Corridor.
The Stawell Mineralised Corridor is 10-20km wide, extends for 250km in length and is defined by the Moyston fault to the west and the Coongee fault to the east.
NSM has identified 43 gold targets it plans to explore after conducting an exploration review of the Stawell Mineralised Corridor.
The company’s granted exploration tenure covers 262 sqkm, while it has a further 291sqkm under application. Some exploration drilling has already been carried out on its tenements.
Through a strategic alliance with Stawell Gold Mines, NSM has access to a significant geological database of Magdala mine geology and regional datasets, which is being used by its technical team.
Farm-in deal
NSM has entered into agreements to acquire interests in several tenements, including 100 per cent of the Glenorchy tenement and 51 per cent in the Barrabool and Wildwood tenements.
The company has the right to earn a 51 per cent interest in each of the Deep Lead and Germania tenements that are currently under application.
“Historic exploration to the north has identified a number of prospects with potential to host significant gold mineralisation and the Wildwood tenement contains an inferred JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate of 55,000 ounces,” NSM chairman Jerry Ellis, a former CEO and chairman of BHP, said in the company’s prospectus.
Ellis is joined on the board by former Anglo America head of geosciences and exploration Graham Brown, former vice president greenfields exploration at Kinross Gold Alistair Waddell and Arete Capital Partners CEO Campbell Olsen.
Nearly three-quarters of the IPO funding will be used for exploration costs. North Stawell Minerals’ shares will trade on the ASX under the ticker NSM.