BlackEarth Minerals NL (ASX:BEM) has been admitted to the Official List of the ASX and is expected to begin trading at 13:00 on Friday 19 January.
The graphite-focused explorer with assets in Western Australia and Madagascar has been spun out of Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT).
BlackEarth has issued almost 29 million shares at $0.20 per share, raising $5.46 million in the IPO and will have circa 61 million shares on issue when it first trades.
Lithium Australia holds 18% interest
Lithium Australia holds 11 million fully paid shares for an interest of more than 18% and also holds 1 million partly paid shares.
Greyhound Investments Pty Ltd holds a 9.34% interest.
Phillip Hearse, chairman, said in the IPO prospectus: “The company’s WA assets are greenfield projects and as such have seen very little in the way of graphite-focused exploration.
“After the listing date, the company will undertake a methodical exploration approach to prioritising these projects.
“The company has also entered into an agreement to acquire 100% control of a company domiciled in Madagascar that has graphite exploration projects.
“This purchase will complete if the company is admitted to the official list of the ASX.”
Six graphite projects
BlackEarth has four graphite exploration projects in Western Australia - Donnelly River, Greenhills, Northern Gully and Yalbra.
The two projects in southern Madagascar, Maniry and Ianapera, are highly prospective by virtue of their proximity to the large, high-quality Molo project of NextSource Minerals Inc (TSX:NEXT).
Preliminary exploration undertaken at each project also indicates potential prospectivity.
Further development in Madagascar
Initially, BlackEarth will focus on early exploration for graphite on its Western Australian projects, as well as further development of the Maniry and Ianapera projects.
Hearse added: “In addition to the portfolio, BlackEarth has assembled a Board and management team who collectively are experienced with the necessary technical, operational, legal and corporate expertise.
“This comes in mineral exploration, finance, project acquisition, development and operations, including in listed companies.
“In addition to exploring and, if warranted, developing the company's suite of assets, the objective still remains to identify, evaluate and, if warranted, acquire additional resource projects and assets in Australia and/or overseas that are considered to add potential value.”