IPO figures highlight tough times for Australian explorers

International MiningNew figures announced today at the Paydirt 2009 Resources Victoria Conference have highlighted the struggle in the past two years for Australian explorers to raise working capital for both ‘brownfield’ and ‘greenfield’ exploration and mining projects. Figures from financial services firm Patersons Securities showed that there were 252 Initial Public Offers (IPOs) in 2007, dropping to 68 last year, and as Director of Corporate Finance Neil Doyle confirms, “just eight so far this year.” He said that  “the impact is no more evident than in the mining sector, which crashed from 140 IPOs in 2007 to 40 last year to just three this year. (more…)