Barton Gold wants to raise $15m in a bid to eventually restart gold mines including one at Tarcoola

Barton Gold is looking to raise up to $15m in an initial public offer, which it will use to prove up two gold projects in South Australia.

The Tarcoola open pit gold mine. Picture: Supplied

Barton Gold is looking to raise up to $15m in an initial public offer, which it will use to prove up two gold projects in South Australia.

The Perth-based company owns the Tarcoola and Tunkillia gold deposits, and also the Challenger gold mine and processing plant, which are under care and maintenance.

The company picked up the assets in June last year after former owner WPG Resources went into administration, and has previously said the assets had suffered from a lack of technical work in the past.

The company has been drilling out the resources, and is raising the capital to continue that process.

“The company’s initial objective is to systematically test priority targets across the Tarcoola and Tunkillia projects, discover new gold mineralisation, and grow current mineral resources through advanced geophysical techniques and targeted drilling,’’ non-executive chairman Mark Connelley says in the prospectus.

“In particular, the company’s technical work programs completed during 2019 and 2020 indicate the potential that the Tarcoola Project may host multiple potential structural repeats of the high-grade mineralisation and deposit model encountered in the Perseverance Mine.

“Given the prevalence of high-grade drilling results at the Tarcoola Project and its proximity to the Challenger Mill, identifying new high-grade mineralisation at the Tarcoola Project will be a priority.’’

The Tarcoola project was mined for a short time by WPG, and the province has a long history of gold production.

“During the early 1900s the Tarcoola Goldfield was South Australia’s major hard rock gold producer, with numerous historical high-grade workings producing some 2400kg of gold bullion recovered from about 64kt of ore at an average grade of about 37.5 grams per tonne of gold between 1900 and 1955,’’ Barton says in its prospectus.

Barton currently has a 965,000 ounce gold resource at Tunkillia and also a 319,000 ounce resource at its separate West Gawler Craton Joint Venture.

While it owns the Challenger Mine, developing that project is not an early-stage prospect.

“While the Challenger Mine is not a development priority for the company, the Challenger Mill presents additional opportunities for processing of ore from the Tarcoola Project which was previously undertaken during 2017 and 2018,’’ Barton says.

“Additionally, it could be utilised for processing regional mineralisation in the vicinity of the mill.’’

Barton is looking to raise a minimum of $10m and up to $15m through the issue of shares at 25c.

It is aiming to list on the ASX on Monday, June 28. The joint lead managers of the offer are Taylor Collison and Canaccord Genuity.

Originally published as Barton Gold wants to raise $15m in a bid to eventually restart gold mines including one at Tarcoola