Gold explorer Kingwest Resources has closed its $5 million initial public offer oversubscribed.

Kingwest was originally aiming to list on the ASX by July 19.

The float was delayed slightly due to the early termination of the agreement with its corporate advisors and the striking of an agreement that will now see various seed investors voluntarily escrow their shares for 12 months from the date of listing.

Kingwest is confident it will now meet its revised listing date of August 23, according to Nicholas Downes, a director of Peloton Capital – the lead broker for the IPO.

Heading the explorer is Stephen Woodham, the former managing director of YTC Resources – which is now known as Aurelia Metals (ASX:AMI), a precious and base metals producer.

Mr Woodham, who has over 15 years of experience in mining and exploration in Western Australia and New South Wales, was also a founding managing director of Centaurus Resources (ASX:CTM) – which at the time was a Brazil-focused iron ore explorer.

YTC and Centaurus were both “strong” IPOs, Mr Downes told Stockhead.

The cash raised under Kingwest’s IPO will be used to fund drilling and exploration on the Crawford and Emperor projects and to undertake scoping studies.

The Emperor project lies just 5km south-southwest of the Darlot-Centenary gold mine and processing plant owned by one of the world’s biggest gold miners, South Africa-based Gold Fields.

And Kingwest thinks there is a good chance it could find another mine just like it.

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“[Mr Woodham] sees the potential there to find another Lake Darlot,” Mr Downes said.

“The Emperor project probably stands out as the most exciting currently, what with Red 5 drilling on the boundary and the promise of potentially another dolerite system, which is what Lake Darlot was.”

Kingwest has approval for four program of works and will be starting drilling as soon as it lands on the ASX.