Eastern Metals Ltd (ASX:EMS) (ASX:EMS) is the latest explorer to hit the ASX register, trading as much as 22.5% higher than the IPO price on its share market debut.
The precious and base metals stock is now officially a public company, coming in hot on the heels of a fully-fledged $6 million initial public offering (IPO) it executed in September.
Under the IPO, EMS issued 30 million shares at 20 cents a pop, generating a market capitalisation of roughly $10.9 million at the offer price.
But investors have been eager to get in on the explorer’s story today, with shares changing hands at up to 24.5 cents in afternoon trade.
Eastern Metals’ corporate snapshot, current at time of listing.
Portfolio of walk-up, drill-ready targets
Speaking to EMS’ market debut, CEO Wayne Rossiter said: “Our successful admission to the ASX is a great result for the Eastern Metals team, which has spent several years seeking advanced mineral exploration assets with delineated resources or near-resource status, to create what is our highly prospective portfolio of three Australian-based projects, which all contain walk-up, drill-ready targets.
"I wish to thank all of our shareholders for supporting the company thus far and for our lead manager, Panthea Capital for all of their diligent work throughout the IPO process.
“With the maximum of $6 million raised, we are now fully funded to carry out our exploration programs across our Arunta, Cobar and Thomson projects and we look forward to keeping the market updated as we progress.”
???? We are listing on the ASX today at ????????:???????? ???????? ???????????????? | ASX:EMS | For updates, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and visit our website https://t.co/E37Eom9ppK pic.twitter.com/awuSz4Zslo
— EasternMetals (@EasternMetals) October 24, 2021
Hunting for precious and base metals
As it makes strides as an ASX-lister, Eastern Metals will continue to advance its domestic, wholly-owned exploration portfolio.
That includes a series of advanced copper-gold and zinc-silver-lead projects, which also boast nickel and lithium potential.
The explorer’s three properties — the Arunta, Cobar and Thomson assets — are located in prolific mineral provinces across the Northern Territory and New South Wales.
Each of these projects consists of between one and three granted exploration licences.
The company has two flagship assets: — Arunta’s Home of Bullion copper-gold deposit in the NT and Cobar’s Browns Reef zinc-silver-lead deposit in NSW.
They’re both classified as advanced exploration assets under the VALMIN Code, a technical charter used to assess mineral and petroleum projects.
Portfolio snaphsot
Arunta’s Home of Bullion deposit in Barrow Creek already hosts a mineral resource estimate, comprising 2.5 million tonnes of ore at 1.8% copper, 2.0% zinc, 36 g/t silver, 1.2% lead and 0.14 g/t gold (2.8% copper equivalent).
In the past, high-grade copper and nickel has been discovered during drilling at one of Arunta’s prospects, while the Barrow Creek pegmatite field is also prospective for lithium.
Meanwhile, Cobar’s Browns Reef polymetallic deposit is home to a sizeable exploration target, encompassing 27 to 37 million tonnes of ore, averaging between 1.3 % and 1.4% zinc, 0.6% and 0.7% lead, 9 to 10 g/t silver and 0.2% to 0.3% copper.
Higher grade zones found within the exploration target’s envelope will form the basis of Eastern Metals’ pioneer drilling activities at Cobar.
Finally, 250 kilometres to the northwest lies the Thomson Project, a precious and base metals asset with copper-gold and lead-zinc-silver deposits.
Thomson’s targets bear some similarities to the Great Cobar and CSA copper-gold mines, as well as the Endeavor lead-zinc mine.
Forward work program
Eastern Metals will hit the ground running with an extensive exploration campaign planned for the current and coming quarter.
Before years’ end, the explorer will complete six pre-collared diamond drill holes at Browns Reef, following up high-grade zinc-silver-lead intersections.
The program will cover 1,920 metres in total, with the holes planned to drill between 250 and 400 metres deep.
Rotary air blast drilling will also take place, encompassing 243 holes for 3,645 metres.
Next quarter, at Home of Bullion, Eastern Metals will also complete phase one reverse circulation and diamond drilling.
This is designed to increase the mineral resource at the copper-gold deposit.
In addition, nine pre-collared diamond holes, as well as two shallow inclined reverse circulation percussion holes are planned for the Home of Bullion target.
All up, 1,760 metres of percussion and 1,990 metres of diamond drilling should take place over 2022’s March quarter.
A detailed overview of the forward work program is outlined below:
