ASX metals and mining IPOs rebound in 2025, signal improving equity markets

The number and value of metals and mining IPOs on the Australian Securities Exchange rebounded in 2025, halting three straight years of decline.

Metals and mining IPOs on the ASX improved 90% to 19 in 2025, while the offered amount for those listings jumped to A$848.2 million compared to A$86.4 million in 2024.

Shaun Day, managing director of Greatland Resources. Source: Greatland Resources Ltd.

The significant improvement in value in 2025 includes Australian gold-copper producer Greatland Resources Ltd.'s A$504.4 million IPO in June and Canada-based BMC Minerals Ltd.'s A$100.0 million IPO in December.

Greatland acquired Newmont Corp.'s West Australian Telfer operation and nearby Havieron gold project in late 2024, in a deal valued at US$475.0 million. The Havieron project hosts Australia's third-largest underground ore reserve, and the planned mine was valued at A$2.87 billion in a December 2025 feasibility study.

Meanwhile, BMC Minerals is expected to be Canada's top producer of silver and zinc and a top-15 Canadian copper producer once the Kudz Ze Kayah project in the Yukon territory is in operation, according to CIBC Research.

While Greatland and BMC Minerals dominated the listings, experts say the broader sentiment is still improved. In 2025, new price records were set for copper, gold and silver prices while nickel and lithium prices rallied and geopolitics supported rare earths prices.

Greatland's £248.6 million equity raising in September 2024 to help fund the Telfer and Havieron acquisition, in addition to its ASX IPO, reflects improving market sentiment, said managing director Shaun Day.

The placement was the largest capital raising on any London market by a mining company since 2017, the company said at the time.

"We found the traction extraordinarily strong and positive on both occasions, so we actually felt the market was open, and we continue to see that market traction," Day told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

Market opening up

Continuing global uncertainty and conflict means gold is "becoming more correlated with geopolitical risk, and I think that is also very much the driver for critical minerals," Day said.

"It certainly feels like, for the IPO market, that door is definitely open, not just for gold but the commodity market in general and into other sectors," Ben Dunn, managing director and CEO of gold explorer Aventine Resources Pty. Ltd., told Platts.

"People see that it's probably more beneficial to list the company rather than trying to recycle it through a backdoor listing," Dunn said.

Greatland will vend gold exploration assets near its Telfer mill in Western Australia to Aventine as part of the latter's ASX IPO scheduled for March. Greatland is expected to become Aventine's largest investor with a 10% share, according to Dunn.

The Australian investor market "generally has a sound understanding of, and appreciation for, quality resource projects," BMC Minerals Chairman Steven Michael told Platts.

However, the company still spent "a lot of time marketing the IPO and educating the market on the qualities of the polymetallic [Kudz Ze Kayah] project and outlining where we would be spending the money raised," Michael said.

Gold buoys hopes

Much of the optimism surrounding mining is gold. The precious metal was absent among ASX metals and mining IPOs in 2024, but gold was the primary commodity in 2025 with listings worth A$571.9 million, which is 67.4% of the total.

Metals and mining IPOs comprised 37.7% of all ASX listings totaling A$2.25 billion for 2025.

Gold's increasing domination of the equity market was also reflected in the S&P GSCI Precious Metals Index, which once again outperformed the S&P GSCI Industrial Metals Index in 2025. The precious metals index reached a record high in December and has continued climbing.

While global conflicts support gold prices, inflation is of greater concern, said Aventine's Dunn.

"With the way that Western governments are printing money, it seems that they're endeavoring to print their way to inflation, and therefore fly enough out of this debt cycle," Dunn said. "Governments can't see a way to pay down the enormous amount of debt that they've created, and it feels like there's a move towards real assets, of which gold is considered one."

"Spot gold prices rose 65% in 2025, posting their strongest annual returns in both real and nominal terms since 1979," State Street Investment Management said in its Monthly Gold Monitor report for January. Gold demand was supported in 2025 by global government and corporate debt, as well as geopolitical dynamics, the report said.

While the gold price may not continue rising at the same rate, the precious metal remains "a very safe harbor in what could be some fairly difficult markets over the next 12 or 18 months," Dunn said.

"The likelihood of spot bullion scaling US$5,000/oz this year looks to be higher than the 30% weighting we outlined in [December 2025], given recent price momentum and geopolitical dynamics," State Street said.