Cora Gold lists in London to fund exploration in Mali
09/10/2017 07:23
* New listings have struggled as investors wary of risk
* Aiming to establish 1 million ounce mine
* Malian government seen as investment-friendly
By Barbara Lewis
LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - West African-focused Cora Gold
Limited CORAC.L on Monday lists on London's AIM market for
small companies to raise 3.45 million pounds ($4.5 million) to
fund exploration at its flagship Sanankoro project in Mali.
The company, whose shares start trading at 0700 GMT, is the
latest in a string of junior miners to launch on the London
market this year as the sector slowly recovers from the
commodity price crash of 2015-16.
CEO Jon Forster said Cora Gold would stand out as an African
small-cap exploration and development company.
"We will occupy a niche in the London market," he said in an
interview. "There are very few peer comparisons, very few junior
explorers and this is the sector that has the greatest chance of
making multiples for investors."
It also offers some of the highest risk and junior miners
have struggled to attract investment this year even as the major
companies have rallied, led by Glencore GLEN.L , which has
embarked on a series of deals as it moves from recovery to
growth. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1M92RX
Forster said Cora Gold was still relatively low-risk as
historic exploration work has established the presence of gold
and his team has a track record of finding resources.
His aim over the next 9 months is to demonstrate the value
of a 14 kilometre stretch of gold territory.
"We believe we have very good potential to increase the
scale of the discovery to 1 million ounces of in-situ gold and
create a standalone mine," he said.
Other miners that have listed in London this year are
Rainbow Rare Earths RBWR.L , active in Burundi, Jangada Mines
JANJ.J , which is exploring for gold and platinum in Brazil,
Phoenix Global Mining PGMH.L , developing a U.S. copper mine,
Russian gold miner Polyus, PLZLq.L PLZL.MM , and Altus
Strategies ALS.L , which describes itself as a "project
generator". urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1KT5VA
With the exception of Polyus, listed on the main market, new
small-cap listings have tended to struggle.
One issue is concerns about political risk as the sector
disputes South Africa's proposed mining law and Tanzania's
president has introduced a series of measures to increase
greatly the nation's share of profits from mining. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1KB25G
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1M621N
Forster said he was confident the Malian government would
remain friendly.
"Mali is very pragmatic. It understands the advantage of
having a thriving mining sector," he said.
($1 = 0.7656 pounds)
(Editing by Louise Heavens)
((Barbara.hm.Lewis@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 2932;
Reuters Messaging:
barbara.hm.lewis.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: CORAGOLD IPO/