Barton Gold shares have dipped slightly on debut, after $15m raise
Barton Gold says it intends to start exploration on two fronts in coming months, after listing on the ASX.
Barton Gold shares have slipped on debut, down 3.5c from the 25c initial public offer price.
The SA-focused company raised $15m through the issue of 60 million new shares and is aiming to prove up its Tarcoola and Tunkillia deposits.
It also owns the Challenger gold mine and processing plant, which is in care and maintenance.
The company said in a statement to the ASX on Monday that it would start drilling and geophysics at Tarcoola in July and drilling at Tunkillia in August.
More than 11km of reverse circulation drilling will be carried out, the company said.
The Tunkillia project includes the Au 223 deposit which currently has a resource of 965,000 ounce of gold.
“The company believes that Tunkillia is highly prospective for large-scale extensions of mineralisation and will undertake additional analysis of historical geophysical datasets in conjunction with this planned drilling to inform future follow-up work at the project,’’ the company told the ASX.
Barton managing director Alexander Scanlon said the company had, over the past two years, “identified significant new discovery potential across two large-scale, historically under-explored mineral systems’’.
“The company will begin initial major exploration programs quickly during the coming weeks, aimed at systematically testing multiple priority targets across Tarcoola and Tunkillia.
“With the benefit of a total attributable approximately 1.1Moz mineral resources platform and 100 per cent 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.”
By midday on Monday almost two million Barton shares had been traded, with the stock sitting at 21.5c.
Perth-based Barton picked up the Tarcoola and Tunkillia gold projects in June last year after former owner WPG Resources went into administration.
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 said in its prospectus.