Proactive Investors - Battery metals explorer Metals One PLC is looking to join AIM with a £2.5mln fundraising this month as it looks to snap up a pair of 'brownfield' projects in Norway and Finland.
With SI Capital and Beaumont Cornish joint brokers on the initial public offer, the funding is being priced at 5p for an expected debut market valuation of £10.5mln.
The IPO is expected to be complete by the end of the month, Proactive understands, and management plan to launch drill programmes "this summer".
Metals One has agreed terms on the acquisitions of two brownfield projects where it says there is "up to US$17mln of exploration carry exposure".
Brownfield exploration generally involves searching known or currently mined sites for additional deposits, with an expected lower risk as the sites have already been surveyed.
In Finland, the Paltamo and Rautavaara projects have an inferred resource of 28.1mln tonnes (Mt) nickel-zinc-copper-cobalt, with exploration targeting similar geology and mineralisation as the nearby government-owned Talvivaara operation, which it notes is Europe’s only operating nickel mine.
Norway's Råna nickel-copper-cobalt project is said to be "analogous" to Voisey’s Bay world-class nickel-copper-PGE deposit, which is in Canada, and encircles the formerly producing Bruvann Mine.
The Råna exploration programme is expected to be operated and fully carried by Kingsrose Mining Ltd (ASX:KRM), which earlier this year struck an agreement with Canadian owner Global Energy Metals Corp (TSXV:GEMC) to make a staged investment to advance the underexplored project.
As part of Metals One's IPO, Jonathan Owen is stepping up from non-executive director to chief executive. Owens is a mining engineer who was chief operations officer at Helium One (LON:HE1H) and a non-executive at Helium Ventures PLC (AQUIS:HEV).
Also on the board are Alastair Clayton, corporate financier and geologist with in-country experience in mining and exploration companies in Finland and Australia, as well as Craig Moulton, a mineral economist who is managing director of Nickelsearch (ASX:NIS) and formerly of Cobra Resources PLC (LON:COBR), which he took public.