WA Kaolin has solid ASX debut

WA Kaolin has had a positive start to its first day of trading after raising $22 million from its initial public offering, with its share price closing up 25 per cent.

The company opened with a market capitalisation of $56.5 million after it issued 110 million shares under the IPO, priced at 20 cents.

WA Kaolin's shares reached a high of 32.3 cents before closing at 24.5 cents – up 25 per cent on its IPO price, and giving the company a market capitalisation of about $70 million.

Funds raised from the IPO are going towards a staged expansion of its Wickiepin asset, acquired from Rio Tinto in 1998.

The expansion involves scaling up production to 200,000 tonnes per annum by the end of 2022 followed by a ramp-up of 400,000tpa by the end of 2023.

WA Kaolin plans to add on 200,000t in extra capacity in stages.

Chief executive Andrew Sorensen says Wickiepin is one of the largest remaining primary sources of kaolin globally. It hosts 644.5 million tonnes of high-grade premium kaolinised granite.

WA Kaolin has developed a processing plant at Kwinana, which Mr Sorensen said was low cost relative to other processing plants that use chemical bleaching, and multiple wet mechanical and magnetic separation methods.