Exploration company BMC Minerals made its debut on the ASX on Friday following an oversubscribed A$100-million initial public offering (IPO), giving the Canada-focused developer a market capitalisation of about A$550-million on listing.

The company’s CDIs began trading under the code BMC, with each CDI representing one underlying share.

The funds raised will be used to progress exploration, permitting and optimisation work at BMC’s 100%-owned Kudz Ze Kayah (KZK) polymetallic project in Yukon, a 372 km² land package hosting the ABM deposit and copper-rich Kona deposit. BMC has delineated 27.9-million tonnes of resources across the two deposits since acquiring the project in 2015.

Chairperson Steven Michael said the listing marked “an important milestone” for the company as it pushes to develop the KZK project into “an operation of national significance for Canada and the Yukon community”.

“BMC is focused on accelerating the existing workstreams at our 100%-owned KZK polymetallic project by planning a major drilling program to commence early in the new year and anticipate receiving several licences and permits from Yukon and federal regulatory bodies,” he said.

A feasibility study for the ABM mine outlined a pretax net present value of $835-million at conservative silver and gold price assumptions, with a capital payback period of about two years. The study is based on a two-million-tonne-a-year operation, with about 89% of reserves mined from openpits and the balance from an underground development targeting the deeper Krakatoa zone.

Once in production, ABM is expected to be Canada’s largest silver and zinc producer, as well as a top-15 Canadian copper producer. Over the initial nine-year mine life, production is forecast to average 32.2-million ounces silver-equivalent at all-in sustaining costs below $12/oz gold-equivalent.

The project will produce silver/gold, copper and zinc concentrates, with binding offtake agreements in place covering 95% of output over the first five years across all three concentrate streams. Initial construction capital is estimated at $492-million.

Michael said the company aims to deliver on its growth strategy at a time when silver, gold and copper prices remain “extremely strong”.