Two new gold explorers joined the ASX this week, extending a run of market debuts in the resources sector.
Gold fever is sweeping through the bourse again, with Golden Dragon Mining and Right Resources the latest explorers to strike out on the ASX.
Golden Dragon joined the exchange on Wednesday with an extra $5 million in its pockets thanks to a recent IPO, offering 25 million shares at 20 cents a pop.
The Perth-headquartered company has been looking for gold in WA’s north Murchison since 2022, where it’s focused on a tenement package near Westgold and Ramelius’ gold projects.
Further east, Golden Dragon also has some early-stage nickel and critical mineral ground in the goldfields.
With the listing ticked off its to-do list, Golden Dragon said it would begin drilling at its Cue project, eyeing a 2,000-metre program focused on infill and first-pass exploration.
Chairman Rhod Grivas and managing director Simon Buswell-Smith were on site this week to finalise the program, expected to kick off next month.
Golden Dragon’s shares performed well on their first official trading day, closing 12.5 per cent higher and worth 22.5 cents each.
It was a different story for fellow Perth gold pundit Right Resources, however, which finished down 10 per cent on its debut trading day after closing the books on a $10 million IPO led by Euroz Hartleys last month.
While its management is based in Perth, the company’s exploration focus is over east, where it’s chasing gold and copper along New South Wales’ Lachlan Fold Belt and New England regions.
Right’ Resources chairman Graham Howard was in Perth to ring the bell on Wednesday, noting the company had entered he market during a “very strong commodity cycle.”
“We’re very grateful for the international and national investors who’ve come in and supported the IPO,” he told Business News.
Now, Right’s focus will turn to 4,800 metres of diamond drilling at its Pilot project, where it wants to follow up historical gold workings in a maiden exploration program.
Golden Dragon and Right’s debuts add to a modest resurgence in Australia’s IPO activity, which saw no new ASX resource listings in the first five months of 2025.
Analysts say the renewed flow of explorers reflects selective optimism — with gold, in particular, continuing to dominate investor sentiment.
Data from BDO’s June quarter exploration report shows that 42 companies raised more than $10 million in the three months to June, up from 26 the previous quarter, while exploration spending rose 13 per cent to $723 million.
The company’s head of global natural resources, Sherif Andrawes, said investor confidence was strengthening “especially in gold, copper-gold and critical minerals”, as inflation eased and interest rates appeared to have peaked.
