Everlast Minerals, an Australian heavy mineral sands company, is in talks to raise at least AUD 15m (USD 10.23m)from cornerstone investors, ahead of its Australia IPO targeting on around AUD 100m market capitalization, Eric Sun, Corporate Finance Director from BYRONS Corporate Finance
, told Merger market.
An undisclosed Chinese strategic investor has committed to participate as one of the lead investors, with the due diligence work completed, he said, adding that several Asia-based large miners and corporates are among the investors in talks.
Everlast Minerals has mandated Sydney-based advisory fi rm BYRONS as the Lead Manager to advise on its planned public float of up to AUD 20m on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), according to Everlast Minerals’ IPO prospectus, which was fi led on 19 September 2024.
The Sydney-based miner remains receptive to new approaches especially from Asia Pacific strategic corporates, and financial investors active in mining investment, Sun noted. The company will finalize the cornerstone by the end of October.
The near-production company recorded total assets of AUD 4.28m, and total liabilities of AUD 15,000 as of 2023-end,per the same fi le.
Its IPO prospectus went through the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) last week, Sun said. It anticipates to float on the ASX in November, he added.
The ASX has seen several listed mineral sands companies, but not exactly comparable to Everlast Minerals, Sun said, highlighting Iluka Resources [ASX:ILU] and Rio Tinto [ASX:RIO] as top in the space. Iluka trades with a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.52x, while Rio Tinto with 11.57x.
Given the mining sector is crucial to Australian economy, taking a large share on the ASX, such new listed cos remain attractive to investor appetite, which has been also boosted by the Fed’s recent interest rate cut, he noted.
The funding proceeds will be primarily deployed to procure mining and processing equipment for the licensed Gaibandha Mineral Sands Project located in Bangladesh, Sun said.
Such a mining project with 2,395 hectares in area has 91.2 million tons (Mt) of indicated resources and 283.9 Mt of inferred resources, totalling 375 Mt of resources, with heavy mineral content including ilmenite, rutile, zircon, garnet, and magnetite, per the same file.
The company looks forward to running the project into full mining and production, within 12 months after it completes the IPO, Sun said. So far it has been in late-stage discussions with mineral procurers and off take parties mainly from China, he added.
Meanwhile, the company has other two exploration licenses under application for the Kurigram Mineral Sands Project and the Pabna Mineral Sands Project both in Bangladesh (4,000 hectares each), per the same file.
Controlled by founder & executive chairperson Paul Qian with over 50% stake pre-listing, the company has its management team and several seed investors among the shareholders, Sun said. Qian will remain as a major shareholder with around 44% stake directly and indirectly, upon IPO completion.
Headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangladesh, the company conducts river mineral sands exploration and mining in Bangladesh, focusing on discovering and developing heavy mineral sand deposits for production, per its public disclosure.
Everlast Minerals did not return requests to comment on the matter.
by Fei’er Wang, Mergermarket