Australian company to develop gold field in central Otago

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Photo: Getty / Bloomberg Creative / Simon Marks

Gold mining company Santana Minerals has brought some lustre to a dull New Zealand stock exchange with a positive debut.

The Australian-listed gold miner has joined the NZX with a foreign exempt status as it looks to develop a gold field in central Otago.

Santana opened trading at $1.34 a share, hit a high of $1.38 before settling back around $1.36 on modest volumes. The broader NZX was down more than 100 points, about 0.8 percent, after a recent strong rally.

Chief executive Damian Spring said the debut was “positive” and was a good sign of future support from New Zealand investors.

“Our existing shareholder base has been up to 40 percent on the ASX, so well supported already, but truly this allows New Zealanders to invest if they choose to in Santana, a local gold story, in New Zealand dollars in their own time zone.”

The goldminer plans to explore and then develop a gold field in the Bendigo-Ophir districts which it has said may contain more than 2.4 million ounces of gold.

It has been talking of possible net profits of more than $1.1 billion.

Santana Minerals was one of the companies shoulder tapped by the government to apply for fast-track consents, under the new Fast Track Approvals Bill.

“We’ve got some key milestones towards the end of the year with our PFS (pre-feasability studies) and next year lodging our resource consent application. If we’re successful in getting those consents, which we expect that will be the case under the Fast Track Approvals Bill, we’ll be ready to commence construction.

“But in terms of that, we’ll be needing to potentially raise further capital and to have the NZX as part of our dual listing will give us that exposure to New Zealanders and to New Zealand investment funds.”

Spring said he expected Santana to put shovels in the ground by the second half of next year under the Fast Track Approvals Bill.

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