Shares in Spain’s Abenójar Tungsten (LON: ABT) gained on their London Stock Exchange debut Friday after the company raised €170 million ($190 million) in the city’s largest mining initial public offering since 2018.
The company priced its IPO at 110 pence per share Tuesday, when conditional trading began. The shares rose almost 3% to 105 pence in early-afternoon trading Friday, remaining below its offering price.
“Today marks a truly significant milestone for ABT as we join the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange,” CEO Gonzalo García San Miguel said in a statement.
The flotation comes as Western governments seek to secure supplies of tungsten, a critical mineral used in defence systems, aerospace components, industrial cutting tools and electronics. China dominates global production and processing, making new European sources increasingly important to the region’s supply security.
Strategic supply
Abenójar is developing the El Moto project in central Spain, which it describes as one of the world’s largest and highest-grade undeveloped tungsten deposits. Both the mine and its planned processing facility have been designated strategic projects by the European Union, García San Miguel said.
Construction is underway, with first commercial production targeted for the first quarter of 2029. The company is also in the early stages of developing a processing plant to refine tungsten concentrate from the mine.
“Our investors have entrusted us with their capital for one clear purpose: to build this mine,” García San Miguel said. “And that is exactly what we intend to do.”
The CEO said London was the natural choice for the listing because of its concentration of specialist mining investors capable of supporting the company’s long-term development plans.
The offering was the city’s biggest mining flotation by funds raised since Kazakhstan’s uranium producer Kazatomprom raised £311 million ($417 million) through a listing of global depositary receipts in 2018.
With a market capitalization of £522 million, Abenójar is approaching the size required for potential inclusion in the FTSE 250 index, although membership also depends on other eligibility criteria.
Development priorities
The IPO marks a transition for Abenójar after 14 years of investment and development work to advance El Moto from an exploration prospect into a mine under construction.
“Today is not the end of our journey, it is the beginning of a new chapter,” García San Miguel said. “The IPO is not an end in itself.”
The company must now deliver on its construction schedule and complete the processing infrastructure needed to bring the deposit into commercial production. Meeting its 2029 target will depend on executing those plans over the next two years.
García San Miguel said El Moto could become one of Europe’s most important tungsten sources while generating jobs and long-term economic opportunities in Abenójar and the surrounding Castilla-La Mancha region.
BMO Capital Markets and Peel Hunt acted as joint sponsors and joint global coordinators alongside Deutsche Bank, while Canaccord Genuity served as joint bookrunner.
Source: https://www.mining.com/abenojar-tungstens-london-ipo-breaks-eight-year-drought/
