Graphene play Archer drops after battery metals spin-off falls over
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Graphene-focused Archer Exploration no longer plans to spin out its non-graphite projects and list them on the ASX.
Following a review of its business, Archer (ASX:AXE) decided to pursue an initial public offering and listing of its cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel projects before the end of this year.
But Archer told investors this morning that the deal had fallen through.
Shares slipped over 9 per cent to 7.7c on the news.
Under the terms of the share sale agreements, the newly created spin-out company, Ballista Resources, was meant to be listed on the ASX by the end of September.
Archer had been in discussions with Ballista to extend the date, but Ballista told Archer that the IPO would not take place this year.
As a result, Archer decided to terminate the deal.
“While the directors are disappointed at this outcome, the board remains confident in the potential of the non-graphite assets and we intend to commence drilling at the Blue Hills copper-gold project in November,” chairman Greg English said.
“We announced the transaction with Ballista in July 2018, and since that time have not explored the tenements, despite the tremendous potential of the tenements and their prospects for copper, cobalt, gold and manganese.
“We are committed to growing our advanced materials and technology business and will look for alternatives to monetise the non-graphite assets.”
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Archer’s priority is taking its Campoona graphite mine in South Australia through to production.
The junior player is committed to investigating the potential to use its graphene in things like ink that can be used to “draw” computer circuits on flexible surfaces and disease-detecting biosensors.
In the meantime, Archer plans to start drilling at least one of the three “large-scale” gold and copper in soil anomalies it discovered at the Blue Hills project in South Australia.
Results are expected in early December.
Archer would not comment further on the matter.
