The company raised the maximum A$6 million sought, and started trading down at 17c as pent-up selling pressure was released after two years, with 3.4 million of 58 million shares being traded.

 

Ultimately, the explorer closed off 7% at 19c, giving it a market capitalisation of $10.7 million.

 

Pathfinder had hoped to list in October, but ran into issues with its prospectus, and was forced to issue a supplementary report to revise the independent geologist's report, to ensure historical exploration data was JORC compliant, and to clarify certain aspects about the provenance of the data, and to clarify certain other information. 

 

The company has secured a number of leases in Argentina, around the historical King Tut gold-cobalt mine, which operated in the 1950s and 1980s.

 

The company intends to spend around $3 million over the next two years assessing the theory that King Tut offers a window into a larger mineralised system in the adjacent Dianne II and Guille concessions, where there has been limited modern exploration.

 

Pathfinder secured the leases by issuing shares performance rights and a royalty to the vendors, Australia-based Blue Gold Mining and Sandrino Gold.

 

Heading up Pathfinder are ex-Canyon Resources boss Shannon Green as executive chairman, and Sixty Two Capital boss Sufian Ahmad and corporate adviser James Myers as non-executive directors.

 

The top 20 shareholders in Pathfinder own around 40% of the company.

 

Pathfinder's legacy assets, a 70% interest in Hamersley iron project with 30% partner Cazaly Resources in Western Australia and Bloom Lake cobalt project in Canada will be divested post-listing.