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Mining
Lithium-focused IPOs are performing very well – for obvious reasons — and comprise with 4 of the top 6 performing listings so far in 2021.
These standouts include Lithium Energy (ASX:LEL) (+430%), Australasian Gold (ASX:A8G) (+245%), Global Lithium Resources (ASX:GL1) (+205%) and Balkan Mining and Minerals (ASX:BMM) (200%).
Out of these stocks, BMM had the best first day with an 80% gain.
Today, new listing Green Technology Metals came close to this benchmark, peaking at ~72% before settling at ~52% by the close. Joining them on the ASX today was WA nickel explorer Dundas Minerals, which finished up by 5%.
GT1 recently inked a $9.2m deal with Canadian gold explorer Ardiden (ASX:ADV) to explore and potentially develop ADV’s non-core lithium assets in Ontario.
An initial payment by GT1 marked the establishment of the lithium joint venture (51% GT1, 49% ADV) to progress the ‘Seymour Lake’, ‘Root Lake’, and ‘Wisa Lake’ projects. GT1 has the option to purchase up to 80% of the assets for a further $3.5m payment within 12 months of listing.
Ardiden defined a 4.8 Mt @ 1.25% lithium resource at Seymour before the lithium market went pear-shaped in ~2019-2020. The projects have sat idle ever since.
In addition to the mineral resource, Seymour contains a substantial exploration target of ~22 to 26 Mt @ 0.8 to 1.5% lithium.
There are exploration targets at Root and Wisa of 20 to 24 Mt @ 0.8 to 1.5% lithium and 8 to 10 Mt @ 0.8 to 1.5% lithium, respectively.
GTI raised a considerable $24m at 25c per share in its IPO to grow these resources. Its ultimate goal is to become a major hard rock lithium supplier to downstream processors in North America.
Dundas raised $5m at 20c per share to hunt for big ‘Nova’ or ‘Tropicana’-like nickel, gold, and copper deposits at its namesake project in the Southern Albany-Fraser Orogen of WA.
Discovered in 2005, the Tropicana deposit is now one of the largest gold mines in Australia, producing over 400,000oz in FY21.
Nova — an entirely new type of nickel discovery in the Fraser Range – was uncovered by micro-cap explorer Sirius Resources in 2012.
Within two months the Sirius share price was up 4000%, from 5c to over $2.50. And when it was finally acquired by major miner Independence Group (ASX:IGO) in 2015, the former penny stock was valued at $4.38 per share, or $1.8 billion.
DUN says its tenements, about 100km from Nova, are exciting because nearly all previous exploration targeted gold and base metals, rather than nickel.
Even that exploration was pretty lax, DUN says. A small amount of drilling was completed in parts of the area before 1995, prior to these major discoveries being made.
Nearly all holes were drilled to a depth of less than 50m.
“At that time, the prospectivity for nickel within the area covered by the company’s tenements was not appreciated,” DUN says.
“However, the understanding of the geological relationship between the Fraser Range (where Nova is) and the Biranup Zone (the location of our Dundas Project) continues to evolve, and in the company’s opinion is increasingly favourable for nickel, gold and base metals discoveries.”
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