Archer Exploration to List Non-Graphite Projects Via IPO

Archer Exploration (ASX:AXE) is ramping up to list its non-graphite exploration projects on the ASX through an initial public offering (IPO).

After completing a strategic review of its mineral exploration business, the company said in a press release that while it’s seen success, growth, scale and diversification at its non-graphite exploration properties, it feels an independent ownership model would provide greater benefits.

Accordingly, the company will be pursuing an IPO on the ASX by the end of 2018, with the expectation that it will be completed sometime during the year’s final quarter.

As the company looks to the future, it has now entered into binding share sale agreements with Ballista Resources for the sale of its subsidiaries, SA Exploration and Archer Energy & Resources. Ballista, a newly incorporated public company, is intended to be the IPO listing vehicle.

The company’s non-graphite projects include the Jamieson Tank manganese project, the Blue Hills copper project, the Kechowla manganese-cobalt project, the North Broken Hill cobalt project and the Leigh Creek magnesia project, the last of which was just sold earlier this month.

The sale of Leigh Creek, along with Ballista’s pending ASX listing, will allow Archer to focus on the growth and development of its advanced materials business, with a focus on human health, reliable energy and quantum technology.

Upon completion of the IPO, Archer will receive 48 million shares of Ballista with the intention of distributing some or all of them to Archer shareholders through an in-specie distribution.

Once Ballista is listed, Archer will hold the Campoona graphite mining lease and associated licenses, Sugarloaf farmland, exclusive exploration and graphite mining rights on the Eyre Peninsula tenements, the Carbon Allotropes online marketplace and all graphite- and graphene-related intellectual property.

Archer’s share price was sitting at AU$0.11 at close of day Friday (July 20). It is down 26.67 percent year-to-date, but is up 120 percent over the last year.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Olivia Da Silva, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.