Far East Gold (FEG) officially listed its initial shares on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) today, Monday (28/3/2022). One of the company's focuses is to acquire 3 gold mines in Indonesia. Based on the initial public offering (IPO) prospectus, FEG issued 60 million new shares at a price of 0.20 Australian dollars per share.
Thus, the company pocketed fresh funds of around 12 million Australian dollars from this IPO. FEG Chairman Paul Walker said the company had obtained commercial rights for the acquisition, exploration and development of three mining projects located in the Drummond Basin and Connors Arc areas, Queensland, Australia. Then there are 3 projects in Indonesia, namely the Woyla gold mine in Aceh, Trenggalek in East Java and Wonogiri in Central Java.
“Indonesia presents attractive opportunities for mining companies in general and Far East Gold in particular. Indonesia is growing rapidly in its wealth of natural and human resources,” he explained in the prospectus.
According to him, Indonesia's large mineral reserves and relatively low operating costs are one of the world's biggest contributors to the global mining sector. Indonesia is currently the 6th and 12th largest gold producer in the world The Drummond Basin and Connors Arc are well-established locations for gold exploration and operations in Queensland. The Drummond Basin has historically produced over 4.5 million ounces of gold and has total known gold reserves of over 7.5 million ounces of gold.
As for the 3 gold mines in Indonesia, the following data is presented by FEG in its prospectus:
1. Woyla Gold Project 6th generation works contract covering an area of 24,260 ha in Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Far East Gold believes that this project is one of the most prospective pure copper gold projects in Southeast Asia. Far East Gold has secured the rights to acquire an 80 percent participating interest in the project.
2. Trenggalek Gold Project Project with IUP OP (Operation and Production Mining Permit) covering an area of 12,813 ha in East Java, Indonesia. This project is a follow-up project that has completed more than 17,700m of drilling and houses several large-scale porphyry and epithermal prospects. Far East Gold has secured the rights to acquire a 100 percent participating interest in the project.
3. Wonogiri Gold Project Project with 3,928 ha IUP Exp (Mining Permit for Exploration) in Central Java, Indonesia. This follow-on project has a 2012 JORC resource estimate which, using a grade of 0.2 g/t AuEq, contains 81.56 million tonnes at 0.44 g/t AuEq (0.38 g/t gold and 0.11 percent copper ).
This represents 996,500 ounces of gold and 190 million pounds of copper, or 1.15 million ounces of AuEq. At the 0.5g/t AuEq cut-off the estimated total resource contained is 20.95 million tonnes at 0.85 g/t Au and 0.16 per cent copper, representing 573,000 ounces of AuEq consisting of 533,000 ounces of gold and 74 million pounds copper. Far East Gold has secured the rights to acquire a 100 percent participating interest in the project .
Citing Financial Review , Far East Gold is backed by executives who have decades of experience in a relationship-based approach to succeeding in Indonesia. One of Far East Gold 's IPO investors is Michaelangelo Moran, one of the founders of unicorn GoJek . Not to forget, an investment company from the United States, Price Street Capital also bought the IPO of Far East Gold. Prince Street founder David Halpert lives in Singapore and has close connections in Indonesia.
