Middle Island Resources (MDI) announced that its board has approved the demerger of the company’s Barkly copper-gold project in Northern Territory (NT), Australia.
The company will demerge its fully-owned subsidiary Barkly Operations (BOPL), which is the holding company of the copper-gold assets.
BOPL is planned to go for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
The demerger will be subject to Middle Island Resources’ shareholders’ approval.
The Barkly copper-gold project is made up of 12 exploration licences and applications, that span 4,411km2.
According to Middle Island Resources, the project has tier 1 iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) targets.
The company said that the IOCG potential extends along the East Tennant Ridge. The mineralisation is mainly defined by magnetic, gravity, and magneto-telluric anomalies under the Georgina Basin located between Tennant Creek in the NT and Mt Isa in Queensland.
Middle Island Resources is taking up the demerger as its market capitalisation is not giving proper value to the Barkly copper-gold project.
The company has also cited the sentiment for copper, and the potential scale and quality of the Barkly copper-gold project as reasons for its decision.
It expects BOPL to evoke strong interest after its demerger, thereby generate considerable value for eligible holders.
Middle Island Resources also anticipates to focus on streamlining shareholder value for its flagship Sandstone gold project in Western Australia following the separation of the copper-gold project.
Middle Island Resources MD Rick Yeates said: “The demerger of BOPL will provide investors two opportunities to grow value; in Middle Island as a more advanced pure gold exploration and development company, and in BOPL as it commences greenfields exploration of an exciting new copper-gold province.”
In December 2020, the company claimed to have identified significant surface copper oxide mineralisation at the Crosswinds prospect within EL32297 licence of the Barkly copper-gold project.
