Perth-based Awati Resources is taking its gold hunt in one of the original NSW goldfields to the ASX.
The junior explorer is hoping to make its debut on the Australian bourse in mid-May after an initial public offer to raise between $4.5 million and $5.5 million at 20c per share.
Awati director Jens Balkau led the discovery and definition of 5 million ounces of gold in the Duketon Belt of Western Australia for Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) — which is now a $2.4 billion producer.
Executive director Robert Hodby is confident Awati will have no problem completing its IPO and listing on the ASX.
“I think the appetite for gold is pretty good,” he told Stockhead. “There’s a lot of volatility in the market and that always helps the gold price.”
There have been a few gold IPOs this year, the most recent being Mako Gold, which made it onto the boards on Monday.
- Bookmark this link for small cap breaking news
- Discuss small cap news in our Facebook group
- Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
- Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Awati — which has been privately held for more than a decade — decided to go public because it thinks it has pinpointed the source of gold on its NSW landholding.
“On the back of that we had what we believed was a really good story and we wanted to put some more money in the ground and prove it out,” Mr Hodby said.
“We’ve been private for well over ten years and going public was the best way of raising funds. We looked at a couple of options for getting funders in to keep it private, but the majority of the shareholders wanted to go public.”
Awati is exploring the Tibooburra area in the Albert goldfield of NSW.
In a previous drilling program, the company identified a couple of structures that were mineralised.
“We now believe we know where the gold is coming from and we revised our model, did some follow-up seismic testing using passive seismic and that further identified the faults that are in the area and firmed up the model again,” Mr Hodby said.
Awati is planning to start another drill program on April 25, a day before its IPO closes.
The program will comprise 6000m across 60 holes down to a depth of 80m to 100m.
There are no other ASX-listed players in the area, according to Mr Hodby.
“We believe we’ve got the best of — if not all of — the mineralised fault that is going through that area,” he said.