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West Cobar Metals listed on the ASX on October 1 with a clear strategy to test an
underexplored portion of the prolific mineral district in New South Wales

“ The market is really buoyant and everyone’s

got a higher risk appetite so people are actually
ready to take the chance now more than ever to step
up into an MD role

Andrawes agreed it was difficult for in- portion of the famed Cobar mineral district world the company would have completed
vestors and others in the industry to keep in New South Wales. its IPO several months earlier and “not be-
up with the constant stream of IPOs, sug- Upon listing on the first day of Octo- come one of the crowd”.
gesting it was as important as ever for ber, West Cobar had the drill rigs turning “The timing has been good in terms of
companies to be clear about their strat- at Bulla Park, one of four projects in the base metal prices and appetite, but I think
egy and honour the commitments made company’s portfolio, all to the west of the we were about 3-4 months too late,” he
by those who backed the float in the first township. Most of the main discoveries said. “Part of that was because the ASX
instance. and mining operations in the region are requires 50% of an asset to be owned and
“I get calls to go and work on so many located to the east. we were delayed a bit with some of the
transactions, whether it’s an expert’s re- West Cobar chief executive David Pas- option agreements for the West Desert
port for takeovers, etc and I’ll not have a coe attributed some of the reaction to de- acquisition.
clue what company they’re talking about lays in completing the proposed drilling. “You can feel the fatigue in the market
because it’s either a new company or “We did intend to drill at Mt Jack before for the small end of town and that’s what
they’ve changed their name; it can be Christmas but we had record rainfall in we’re fighting against. We’re competing
hard and some of them have very similar that part of NSW unfortunately and there’s with a lot of other companies, hence we
names,” Andrawes said. a river we have to cross so we were un- opened a bit lower than what the IPO
“That’s why I think’s it’s vital companies able to get in when we wanted to, but we’ll was, but we’re not alone. There’s no alarm
set the strategy early, remembering that pick that up again in the new year and bells, we’ll stick to what we told investors
investors invest in an IPO for a reason and continue as planned,” Pascoe said. and things will rebound quite strongly, I
it’s generally going to be because you’re “Our share price dropped a little bit believe.”
wanting to achieve a specific goal in your [since the IPO] because I think it was an- The abundance of IPOs has also
prospectus, when and how you’re going to ticipated that we would have been much opened the door for many people such
achieve that goal and being true to that. more advanced than we are. It’s really as O’Neill to step up and take on their first
“If you are going to change your strate- only going to take one good hit, either at senior executive role.
gy, make sure that you have good reasons Mt Jack or at Cawkers Hill. Things change Analysis from Perth-based executive
for it. Again, remembering back to your pretty quickly once you start getting re- recruitment firm Acacia found 19 of the
prospectus; there’s a reason why people sults the market likes.” 47 managing director/chief executive ap-
put the money in, this is what they want While a dozen new floats were added pointments in the metals and mining in-
to see and keep them updated on those to the bourse in the final month of 2021, dustry over the final six months of last year
timeframes. No surprises is really impor- there was a sense of IPO fatigue by the were first-timers. In WA alone, there were
tant.” time American West Metals Ltd manag- 15 newcomers among 33 total executive
Staying the course is exactly what the ing director Dave O’Neill was ringing the appointments.
team behind West Cobar Metals Ltd plans trademark bell at the ASX. Acacia director Abbi Vermey said never
to do. Like Australasian, the company Despite plenty of hype in the lead-up before had so many first-timers taken on
endured a tepid reaction to its initial ex- to the listing ceremony, American West the top job of an IPO company.
ploration results but remains focused on shares dipped as low as 11.5c in the first “The market is really buoyant and eve-
proving up what it believes is an untapped week of trade. O’Neill said in an ideal ryone’s got a higher risk appetite so peo-

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