IPO Radar: Lithium hopeful Leeuwin Metals set to make its ASX debut this week

IPOs have been extremely unpredictable so far this year and that's not even referring to share price performance – I'm talking about listing dates.

There's a long list of companies that have pushed back listing dates for unspecified reasons, including:

• Evergreen Lithium: A lithium explorer which borders Core Lithium

• North Star Energy: An east coast gas explorer

• Patagonia Lithium: An Argentina-based lithium explorer with three prospective properties

The listing dates have been switched to TBA on the ASX upcoming floats and listings website.

Delays aside, there's another battery metal explorer that's scheduled to list this week. Let's hope the listing date does not fall through like its peers.

Leeuwin Metals: A Glencore-back explorer based in Tier-1 Jurisdictions

Leeuwin Metals has five projects prospective for nickel, copper, PGEs and lithium, located across tier-1 jurisdictions in Canada and Western Australia. Some key details for the IPO include:

• Offer price: 25 cents

• Amount raised: $6-8 million

• Market cap: $22-24 million

• Options issued to Lead Manager: 3.0 million

• Expected listing date: Wednesday, 29 March at 12:00 pm AEDT

The company will be led by Christopher Piggott, who was previously a senior geologist at Bellevue Gold (ASX: BGL) and mine geologist and Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST).

Leeuwin expects to spend between $4.2 million to $6.2 million over the next two years with a focus on flagship William Lake Nickel Project as well as Jenpeg Lithium Project and Marble Bar Lithium Project. Here are a few more details about the three:

• William Lake is based in Manitoba, Canada and possesses historic drilling data of 152 holes for 89,500 metres. The data shows characteristics of a high grade and scalable nickel deposit

• Jenpeg Lithium is situated in the same region as William Lake. The area hosts several lithium projects and the World Class Tanco Mine

• Marble Bar demonstrates similar geological settings as Global Lithium's Marble Bar Project

As for next steps, Leeuwin plans to focus on initial diamond drilling at William Lake to delineate a possible Mineral Resource. It also intends to carry out various early stage reconnaissance and field work programs across the other projects.

The world's largest diversified mining company, Glencore, will also take a 9.97% interest in the company.

The listing comes amid severe weakness for lithium, with Chinese lithium carbonate prices down more than 50% from November 2022 highs.

Chinese lithium carbonate price (Source: TradingEconomics)