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Gold exploration minnow Ophir Gold plans to list in the next six months - it's just not sure where.
The NZAX was the company's logical preference and would appeal to local investors, spokesman Alistair Ward said. But Ophir, which says it will need to raise $1.5 million to float, is mulling options such as the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
The last gold exploration company to list on the NZAX was Simon Henderson's Glass Earth, which raised $10 million in New Zealand and in Canada last year.
Ophir has raised $700,000 privately to fund exploration near the town of Ophir in Central Otago. All except one of its 15 shareholders are based in New Zealand. Listing would give the company potential to buy other gold-prospective properties, Ward said.
Core drill samples taken last year from a Central Otago prospects showed potential for about 109,000 ounces of gold. Another prospect had "real potential", Ward said. The company was confident a third would develop in the next six months.
Ophir has nine exploration permits over 650ha of land along the line of strike from Melbourne-based OceanaGold's Macraes gold deposit, which has produced 2 million oz of bullion gold since 1990. It also has a prospecting permit over the Red Hills northeast of Milford Sound on the South Island's West Coast.
The company was set up in August last year by South Island mining industry veteran Bob Kilgour and senior geologist John Scott.
