Power Metal Resources PLC (AIM:POW) cheered Friday’s stock market debut for First Class Metals PLC, a vehicle that’s 28% owned by the company.
First Class Metals floated onto a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange through an IPO raising £1.85mln, priced at 10p per share, giving the whole company a market capitalisation of £1.13mln.
The newly listed firm is focused on a portfolio of gold, base and battery metal exploration assets in Ontario, Canada, including the flagship North Hemlo project (prospective for old, nickel, copper, zinc and molybdenum) and a joint venture with Palladium one for the Pickle Lake project.
It already has active exploration programmes underway across its portfolio, and, proceeds from the fund raise are expected to support ongoing work.
“The company has an outstanding portfolio of assets in the Hemlo-Schreiber Greenstone Belt of Ontario Canada.
“Seven projects in total, including the 'flagship' project North Hemlo and has a diverse holding of six other projects across this metal endowed belt. The commodities being explored and developed on are gold and precious metals, along with nickel which will be highly sought after in tomorrow's EV and battery storage world.”
He added: “We have already made progress on the exploration front in 2022 with an airborne low-level geophysics and ground exploration across most of the properties in progress or completed.
“We look forward to building on the initial exploration and further adding value to projects as soon as possible."
Power Metals holds 28.19mln shares in the new company along with warrants representing a potential issue of a further 517,705 shares.
Paul Johnson, Power Metals chief executive, added: "Our congratulations to the First Class Metals team for their work and commitment to secure this listing.
“In our view, First Class has a highly prospective project portfolio centred within the prolific Schreiber-Hemlo belt of Ontario, Canada, and offers investors an exciting new investment proposition.”
“Today's listing is a notable event for Power Metal, where a previous project investment has now become a significant balance sheet asset. We will be watching the progress of First Class with a keen interest.”
It also provided an update in respect of its project portfolio in Western Australia and the Northern Territory held through its 62.1% subsidiary First Development Resources Ltd (FDR).
A drilling contract was signed with DDH1 Drilling Ltd for the Wallal Phase I diamond drilling programme. DDH1 has extensive experience in the Paterson region and drilled the discovery holes for the Greatland Gold PLC (AIM:GGP, OTC:GRLGF) Havieron deposit.
The in-depth desktop review for the Ripon Hills and Braeside West projects has been completed with multiple targets identified for gold and base metals associated with deep-seated fault structures confirmed for further investigation.
Johnson commented: "The FDR team continue to progress work across its project portfolio in Australia whilst at the same time advancing the various workstreams necessary to efficiently complete the planned UK listing process.
"The cumulative findings from our internal work supported by feedback from FDR's advisor group gives us the confidence to push ahead aggressively with our work, enhanced particularly by the ongoing investment into detailed desktop reviews, which is significantly increasing our project knowledge at a very modest cost."