Valiant Gold’s shares rise 20 per cent on ASX debut as Westgold spin-out defies bear market

Westgold Resources spin-out Valiant Gold has defied souring sentiment for the precious metal with its strong start to life on the stock exchange.

Valiant finished its first day of trade on the Australian Securities Exchange at 30¢ a share — up 20 per cent from its initial public offering price of 25¢.

The Brendan Tritton-led Valiant raised $75 million through its IPO and Westgold retained a 44 per cent stake post-listing.

Westgold in December announced it would create Valiant by packaging up two idle underground gold mines and adjacent exploration ground.

Valiant’s key assets will be the South Emu-Triton and Comet underground mines, which were placed on care and maintenance in mid-2022 when gold was about one-thirds of its current value.

The two mines combined produced more than 1 million ounces of the precious metal and are near Westgold’s Meekatharra and Cue processing hubs in the Mid West.

“This is a significant milestone for both companies and creates a new Australian gold company that will focus on advancing the smaller Reedy and Comet gold Projects, while Westgold continues to focus on scaling value from our larger, core Murchison and Southern Goldfields operations,” Westgold managing director Wayne Bramwell said.

“Our retained equity interest ensures Westgold shareholders continue to benefit from Valiant’sprogress whilst the Ore Purchase Agreement provides an early revenue pathway for Valiant andincremental ore feed opportunities for Westgold’s strategic regional processing hubs.”

Gold miners suffered another red day on the market as the Iran war continues to sap some of the extraordinary gains they had made in recent years.

Gold has lost some of its shine over the past month as investors cash out and pile their money into oil and gas stocks.

The Iran war has created an energy price shock benefiting local oil and gas companies, while the prospect of higher global inflation from the war means the US Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut interest rates anytime soon — another headwind for gold’s value.

The US dollar gold price has shed about 15 per cent over the past month but is remains 41 per cent higher than the same time last year.