Dundas Minerals has listed on the ASX, having earlier raised $6 million to fund its search for nickel, gold and copper in Western Australia.
The Daglish-based business will focus on exploring the Albany-Fraser Orogen district in the Goldfields, with 11 licences covering more than 1,100 square kilometres.
Dundas listed at 21 cents this afternoon, a slight increase on its 20 cents-a-share public offering which closed oversubscribed last month.
Ventnor Capital was lead manager to the raising.
Dundas will use some of the proceeds to explore its landholding in Albany-Fraser, with the district also home to AngloGold Ashanti’s Tropicana mine and IGO’s Nova nickel mine.
Non-executive chairman of Dundas, Mark Chadwick, said there had been little exploration in the area since 2012, when Nova was discovered.
“A key and exciting feature of the company’s exploration tenements is that nearly all previous exploration targeted gold and base metals, rather than nickel,” Mr Chadwick said in the company's prospectus.
“At that time [2012], the prospectivity for nickel within the area covered by the company’s tenements was not appreciated.
“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.”
He said Dundas was listing at a time of both buoyant gold prices, which have remained above $2,000 per ounce since mid-2019, and an unprecedented shift in the demand profile for nickel and copper.
Managing director Shane Volk, who emerged with a 16.6 per cent shareholding in the company, said Dundas would start its first drilling program in the coming weeks.
The company's board also includes technical director Tim Hronsky.
Dundas’ shares reached as high as 21 cents this afternoon, before closing at 20 cents.
