Mining IPOs roar back to life as 2025 marks the dawn of a new boom
What began as a quiet year for IPOs has ended with a rush of new mining floats – and market signals suggest the momentum will continue into 2026.
After a couple of quiet years, 2025 marked the return of mining IPOs, marking the start of a new boom
This year was characterised by large dual listings followed by a number of exploration floats
Based on current activity, there’s likely to be an uptick in IPOs in 2026
While the number of mining initial public offerings in 2025 hasn’t exactly shot the lights out, it’s been quite the tale of two halves.
The first half of the year was a bit of a drought for newcomers, with only Canada’s Marimaca Copper Corp (ASX:MC2) dual listing on the ASX up until the end of May, albeit without raising any capital.
June saw the dual listings of gold producers Robex Resources Inc (ASX:RXR) and Greatland Resources (ASX:GGP), which are up by around 50% and 22%, respectively, since listing.
Since mid-year, the floodgates have opened for IPOs, with wannabes staging a late run to exceed 2024’s total of 15 floats, with 20 new mining listings to date.
Late last month, Lion Selection Group’s famous Lion Clock, which monitors the stages of the mining cycle, moved past 6 o’clock, signifying a new boom.
“This has been caused by improving investor sentiment, manifested as increasing liquidity, led predominantly by the gold price,” Lion Selection managing director Hedley Widdup said in the company’s quarterly report.
“This is seen in mining equity prices, but the strongest evidence is in new IPOs for exploration companies – this marketing is opening.
“The dawn of the next mining boom is no longer approaching, it is here.”
The best performers
There were two clear standouts among the newbies this year.
One was Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM) , up by around 135% since listing in early July.
While technically a backdoor listing into a suspended shell company, BHM had to go through the same process as an IPO, raising $20 million.
The company operates the Rasp silver-lead-zinc mine in Broken Hill, so while it was good timing to bring a new silver producer to the market, it’s the exploration results from its 70%-owned Pinnacles project that have caught investors’ attention.
A standout hit was 7.9m at 1562 grams per tonne silver equivalent.
Pinnacles had been operated by the Williams family, now BHM’s partner, for 70 years, but had never sat within an ASX-listed vehicle.
The project sits on a mining lease, just 15km from the underutilised Rasp mill, and the plan is to bring it into production as soon as next year.
BHM has already raised another $46 million since listing via a placement and the underwriting of options.
Meanwhile, the other serious mover this year was gold developer Ballard Mining, which listed a week before BHM.
The company, a spin-off of Delta Lithium (ASX:DLI), closed its IPO early after raising the maximum $20 million sought.
Reflecting on Ballard’s journey last month at its annual general meeting, chairman Simon Lill said the company could not have picked a better time to list.
He also pointed out the company’s share price, up about 65% since listing, had outperformed the gold price over that time.
Ballard holds the 1.1 million ounce Mt Ida gold project in Western Australia, which sits within 100km of several gold plants.
In late October, Ballard raised $20.6 million, which was cornerstoned by Aurenne Group Holdings, which owns a plant just 8km from Mt Ida.
Despite the strong performance since listing, analysts see further upside, with Argonaut slapping a $1.15 price target on Ballard, while Bell Potter Securities has a $1.05 price target.
Rest of the pack mixed
Unsurprisingly, gold dominated the rest of this year’s newcomers.
However, for something completely different, Bangladesh-focused mineral sands explorer Everlast Minerals (ASX:EV8) is up by about 85%, making it one of the best performers.
Victoria-focused gold explorer Black Horse Minerals (ASX:BHL), which only listed last week, is up 72.5% from its IPO issue price.
West Arunta greenfields explorer Tali Resources (ASX:TR2) is up 65% on its 20c issue price.
The next best performer was Burkina Faso gold producer Orezone (ASX:ORE), another dual listing, which is up by just over 50% since landing on the ASX.
Montana-focused gold play Sentinel Metals (ASX:SNM) is up 40% in the six weeks since its debut as it prepares for its first diamond drilling program.
Queensland-focused PC Gold (ASX:PC2) is up 10%, while New South Wales gold explorer Right Resources (ASX:RRE) is up by around 7.5%.
Türkiye-focused gold miner Ariana Resources (ASX:AA2), a dual listing, LinQ Minerals (ASX:LNQ), owner of the 3.7Moz Gilmore gold-copper porphyry project in NSW, new lithium explorer Desert Minerals (ASX:DSM) and Murchison gold explorer Golden Dragon Mining (ASX:GDR) are flat since debut.
The worst performers in the bunch are titanium processing play Temas Resources (ASX:TIO) and Queensland gold explorer Green & Gold Minerals (ASX:GG1), each down 20%, and Queensland gold-copper explorer Golden Globe Resources (ASX:GGR) and WA bauxite developer VBX (ASX:VBX), each down by 30%.
Still to come
The new listings for 2025 aren’t finished yet.
Today (Thursday) multi-commodity grassroots explorers Moonlight Resources and Exultant Mining will list.
Friday will see two of the largest mining IPOs of the year list, both of which are coincidentally focused on Canada.
Yukon zinc play BMC Minerals is set to debut after raising $100 million, while Quebec high purity alumina developer Advanced Energy Minerals will land after closing a $40 million IPO.
Cambodia-focused Unity Metals had hoped to sneak onto the bourse just before Christmas but the company confirmed to Stockhead it had extended the closing date of its IPO and had a tentative listing date of January 8, which could make it the first newbie of 2026.
Despite being in the spotlight this year, there’s yet to be an influx of new critical minerals players.
Barkly Rare Earths is aiming to change that, with the rare earths play last week launching an $8 million IPO.
Led by former Arafura Rare Earths boss Gavin Lockyer, the company’s Barkly project in the Northern Territory already has a resource of 40 million tonnes at 710 parts per million magnet rare earth oxide, within 2100ppm total rare earth oxide.
Global Lithium Resources (ASX:GL1) recently announced the demerger of its WA gold assets into MB Gold, while Mammoth Minerals (ASX:M79) plans to spin off two of its North American projects.
Wiluna Mining Corporation is also planning an IPO to return to the ASX, more than three years following its collapse.
In late August, Bronwyn Barnes, president and CEO of Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Atlantic, said the iron ore developer “would like to be ready” to launch its IPO by the end of 2025 in what is likely to be the largest ASX mining float since 2021.
Meanwhile, following in the footsteps of its West African gold peers Robex and Orezone, Toronto Venture Exchange-listed Asante Gold Corporation this week announced it had kicked off the process to seek to dual list on the ASX early next year.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Broken Hill Mines and Mammoth Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the columnist and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.
Originally published as Mining IPOs roar back to life as 2025 marks the dawn of a new boom
