Africa-focused iron ore explorer IronRidge Resources (LON:IRR) has started its first day of dealings on London's junior market.
As the trading session began on AIM, shares were quoted at 10.75p.
The company raised around £9.7mln in fresh capital through its flotation, with investors buying in at 10p a share, giving the company a market value of around £23.7mln.
The Aussie firm said it will use the funds raised from the flotation to undertake exploration mapping, sampling and some 15,000 metres of drilling on its exploration projects in Gabon.
IronRidge was founded by listed Australian resource company DGR Global to focus on the discovery of a new haematite iron province with competitive logistic and grade advantages.
After an extensive search, the company identified equatorial West Africa as a vacant opportunity on the extensive Proterozoic-aged iron belt stretching from the Pilbara in Western Australia and the famous and prolific Carajas iron region in Brazil.
The project, as well as being vast, is conveniently located close to the coastal port site of Mayumba.
"We will be active in the field shortly and will update shareholders as we progress,” said executive chairman, Nick Mather.
Chief executive Vincent Mascolo told Proactive Investors that 21 targets had already been identified and the next phase would be to prioritise these for drilling.
In terms of a production start, he envisages a timeline of 3-5 years.
"We potentially offer the investors a low capex, and more importantly, a low opex operation after discovery."
He added: "We think the next three- five years as we go through the exploration, discovery and then into production phase, the iron price will certainly be well on its way to recovery."