Native Mineral Resources to list on ASX to revive famed North Queensland gold area
The gold and copper explorer is seeking to raise at least $4 million through its initial public offering.
Native Mineral Resources has launched its initial public offering (IPO) to raise at least $4 million to offer the market exposure to historic gold and copper in Queensland and greenfield gold hopes in Western Australia.
Native Mineral Resources is offering shares at $0.20 each and has a minimum subscription of $4 million (20 million new shares) and a maximum of $6 million (30 million new shares).
The IPO, which is not underwritten, closes on 23 October. The company will trade under the ticker ‘NMR’ when listed.
The Palmerville project, inland from Cooktown in northern Queensland, is the company’s principal exploration asset.
It contains a near-contiguous strike of 130km located within a project area of just under 1,820sq km.
Tenements include Palmer River gold rush ground
Like many projects being picked up these days, it brings back memories of great historical mining events — in this case, Queensland’s Palmer River gold rush of 1873.
A year after a team exploring the region reported finding some gold traces, one James Venture Mulligan in 1873 sent out word of the discovery of alluvial gold, walking out with 102 ounces.
It led to the founding of Cooktown as a port to supply the field inland, the town at its peak having 65 hotels and 32 general stores.
The field was also noted for the large numbers of Chinese who flocked to pan for gold.
But the field began to fade in the late 1880s as the easy gold was all worked out.
Native Mineral Resources’ ground consists of eight exploration permits and one application, the last tenement hosting what is known as the Chillagoe Formation with its Red Dome and Mungana porphyry gold-copper deposits.
Two tenements, Mitchell and Palmer River, were part of the 1873 gold rush.
The ground at Mt Morgan, near Rockhampton, excludes the eponymous and famous copper-gold mine (1882-1981) but covers 43sq km close to the old workings.
The Mount Morgan mine produced 50 million tonnes at 0.7% copper and 4.7 grams per tonne gold.
Native Mineral Resources’ tenement is, according to the company, prospective for several types of mineralisation, including those similar to the ore processed by the mine as well as related copper-molybdenum mineralisation.
WA ground near operating mines, under-explored
Over in Western Australia, Native Mineral Resources has entered an option to acquire two exploration licences and two licence applications.
The prospectus notes they are located in the Yilgarn Craton, “one of Australia’s premier mineral provinces”, and host to large deposits of gold, nickel, lead, zinc, silver, tantalum and iron ore.
Native Mineral Resources said the optioned tenements in the Eastern Goldfields are close operating gold mines and are under-explored.
“In the company’s opinion [these] offer great opportunities to discover relatively new concepts of mineralisation style,” it stated.