The ASX’s newest gold play Mako Gold — led by husband and wife miners Peter and Ann Ledwidge — made a steady public debut on Monday.

Mako raised $6 million — including a cornerstone investment of $2 million by Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) to develop three West African gold projects on the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.

Under the IPO Mako (MKG:ASX) issued 30 million new shares at 20c apiece. The shares closed at 19.5c on Monday.

The projects lie within the so-called Birimian greenstone belt — a 350,000 sq km region stretching across West Africa that has given up some 80 million ounces of gold in recent decades.

The Ledwidges were previously the driving force behind Orbis Gold which found 2.6 million ounces of high-grade gold across two discoveries in Burkina Faso, only to see it taken over by Canadian miner SEMAFO for $178 million in 2015.

Mr Ledwidge told Stockhead columnist Barry FitzGerald in February that he expects Mako to become a takeover target in time.

“Our goal is not to become a miner. What we’re good at is finding gold projects. We want to move Mako along to the point where it becomes a takeover target down the road,” he told Stockhead.

Following the IPO, there are 63.3 million shares on issue, for a market cap of about $12.3 million at Monday’s closing price of 19.5c.

Field crews were “on the ground in preparation for the planned drilling programs at the Napié Project in Côte d’Ivoire and the Tangora Project in Burkina Faso”, the company told investors on Monday.

Drill rigs were scheduled to arrive at both sites “in the coming weeks”.

Mr Ledwidge said: “We are thrilled to have closed our IPO oversubscribed and achieved an ASX listing.

“We can now focus 100 per cent of our attention on the planned exploration programs, particularly the upcoming maiden drilling programs, in the hope of delivering positive news flow to our shareholders in the near future.”

 

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