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Torrens bursts onto the bourse

Torrens was formed in 2014 with the specific
objective of acquiring the Mt Gunson (now
Elizabeth Creek) project in South Australia

hey may have missed out on their wish Torrens was joined by Australian Gold & Torrens also has ground immediately ad-
Tto have their company’s shares trading Copper Ltd – a spin-out of Magmatic Re- jacent to the Costerfield gold mine owned
before Christmas, but the team at Torrens sources Ltd – on January 20 as the second by TSX-listed Mandalay Resources Corp.
Mining Ltd were only too happy to ring in new resources listing of 2021. Auric Mining Shedden said most of the company’s IPO
2021 as the year’s first new resources float. Ltd and Mamba Exploration Ltd were also investors were swooned by the prospect of
Formed almost seven years ago with the lining up for their ASX debuts at the time of another Fosterville-like gold discovery.
specific ambition to acquire the Mt Gunson print. “The opportunity to explore for the gold-
copper-cobalt project in South Australia, Blackstone Minerals Ltd also announced antimony association which is that sort of
Torrens closed its $10 million IPO in mid- last month it was planning to spin-out its Fosterville model is an exciting one,” he
December but had to bide its time in the non-core gold assets into Codrus Minerals said.
long queue of new listings waiting to debut Ltd during Q2 2021, with the company to “It was a classic case of providing a plat-
their stock on the ASX. have 50% of the equity in the new vehicle form to capitalise on our interests as we
Ultimately the company did not have to upon completion of the proposed $5 million were building them and there is really only
wait too long, officially ringing the bell on IPO. one real avenue for that sort of work in the
January 7 and finishing that day with its Codrus will assume control of the Re- Australian exploration sector and that’s to
shares up almost 50% on the standard IPO cord Mine, Silver Swan South, Red Gate do an IPO and list [on the ASX].”
issue price of 20c. and Middle Creek gold projects in Western Shortly after listing, Torrens confirmed
Speaking to Paydirt shortly after the list- Australia, allowing Blackstone to solely fo- the appointment of former Rex Minerals Ltd
ing process was completed, Torrens man- cus on development of the Ta Khoa nickel chief geologist Patrick Say as exploration
aging director Steve Shedden insisted the project in Vietnam. manager, with the first field programme un-
company’s plans for the year ahead had With Torrens no longer focused on Mt der his watch expected to begin in Victoria
not been impacted despite its delayed ar- Gunson – now called the Elizabeth Creek later this month. The company has also en-
rival on the bourse. project following the sale of a 51% interest gaged geophysical consultants Resource
“As we had the run up to Christmas, eve- to Coda Minerals Ltd in 2018 – the com- Potentials to review and compile all the his-
rything got a bit crowded as happens and pany is excited about making a new gold torical data within the, 1626sq km project
we just had to follow a process,” Shedden discovery over the border at the Mt Piper area at Mt Piper.
said. project in Central Victoria. Shedden said the company’s exploration
“It was mainly paperwork around the ASX Mt Piper is just 30km south-east of Kirk- activities over the next few months would
that we had to complete, but it all worked land Lake Gold’s Fosterville mine and previ- be “a case of how fast we can go”, although
out OK. Because we had the money in the ous drilling at the project by BHP Ltd in the he is quietly confident tangible progress will
bank, we weren’t sweating over anything 1980s returned a hit of 48m @ 0.9 g/t gold have been made by the end of Q1.
through the Christmas/New Year period.” from 184m, including 7m @ 1.4 g/t. “We should be getting close to having

Page 8 FeBRUaRY 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT