Barton makes ASX debut

Barton Gold has had a slow start to its first day of trading, with its shares down 12 per cent as the explorer gets ready to drill targets in South Australia.

Barton listed after raising $15 million from an oversubscribed initial public offering, priced at 25 cents and led by Taylor Collison and Canaccord Genuity.

Sprott Capital Partners acted as co-manager and Ashurst as solicitor to Barton.

The company began trading at 23 cents on Monday before closing down to 22 cents.

Based in West Perth, Barton is focused on exploring for gold in SA's Gawler Craton, where the company will begin an 11,000-metre drilling program across its Tarcoola and Tunkilla prospects between July and September.

Barton will test priority targets identified last year, managing director Alexander Scanlon said.

“Over the past two years, the company has built an excellent team, adopted a new exploration-driven approach in the central Gawler Craton’s most exciting ground, and identified significant new discovery potential across two large-scale, historically underexplored mineral systems,” he said.

“The company will begin initial major exploration programs quickly during the coming weeks, aimed at systematically testing priority targets across Tarcoola and Tunkillia.”

He said Barton would benefit from its 1.1-million-ounce resources platform and sole ownership of the region’s only gold mill.

“(Our) objectives are to demonstrate the true scale potential of this asset package and pursue maximum long-term value creation,” Mr Scanlon said.

Barton joins a rush of new gold explorers on the ASX including Torque Metals, which listed on Friday.