On August 11, North Stawell Minerals announced its Initial Public Offering of 40 million shares on the Australia Stock Exchange, as a result of which it is hoping to raise $20 million.

It comes as another company, Navarre Minerals, has become the presumptive recipient of a licence to explore for gold and other base metals in the St Arnaud region.

North Stawell Minerals has plans to explore for gold and other minerals in a 550-square kilometre area north of Stawell's gold mine. This area is located in the Stawell Corridor, a 51-kilometre strip of land spanning from Great Western to south of Murtoa of which North Stawell Minerals holds tenure. This strip hosts the five-megaounce Magdala Dome, on which Stawell Gold Mines is currently operating.

Chief executive Steven Tambanis said the new company planned to channel more than 80 per cent of the revenue the IPO is predicted to raise into exploration activities.

"It's a tenure that has been held by Stawell Gold Mines and its predecessors for quite a long time. There has been sporadic exploration work done in this area over the last 40 years, which we call the modern exploration period," he said.

"I think at one stage there were seven owners of the mine in an eleven-year period. With all those changes in management, you would see geologists come and go, and the work has never been consolidated or integrated. This is what we are doing.

"The new owners of Stawell Gold Mine came in at the end of 2017. The mine had been mothballed by previous owner Kirkland Lake, and while they got the mine itself, got the mill refurbished and started doing underground exploration there, they had a crew of geologists sit down and just go through all the regional work.

"It surprised management the amount of work that had been done. There are some good results, there is certainly gold mineralisation throughout that tender package, but the opinion was no-one had really done too much at it.

"Through geophysics, we can see there is potential for 17 additional domes to the north of the Stawell Gold Mine. The mine is a basalt dome, and the gold sits on top of this."

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Mr Tambanis said the company had more than 40 "gold targets" it wanted to explore over the next couple of years. He said Stawell Gold Mine's owners, Melbourne-based private equity company Arete Capital Partners, were selling North Stawell Minerals its properties, and retaining a 66 per cent interest, with the other 33 per cent being offered to the public in this IPO.

"What I like about the approach the company has made here is they are raising enough money to do an intensive exploration program over the next few years, and basically take all this historic work and consolidate it."

Mr Tambanis said other companies may eventually be able to bid to mine where North Stawell Minerals finds gold deposits.

"Should we make discoveries, at the time we will look at whether it is more economic to transport ore to the existing mine or set up another plant," he said.

"If you do have to go and do a drilling, geochemical or geophysical program, you have to go on the land, and it goes without saying you have to do this with the blessing of landowners. We need to make sure we work hand-in-hand with them."

Mr Tambanis said the exploration phase would create 10 jobs directly.

Prior to the IPO, Leviathan Resources Pty Ltd, a Victor Smorgon Group company, was the major shareholder of North Stawell Minerals. Victor Smorgon Group is also a major shareholder of Navarre Minerals.

In a statement, Earth Resources Regulation Acting Executive Director Paul McDonald said Navarre Minerals' St Arnaud application was still being assessed, with public submissions open until August 26.

"Details can be viewed at earthresources.vic.gov.au/licenceapplications," he said.

"If granted, the Minerals Exploration Licence would allow Navarre to conduct activities such as geological mapping and sampling, geophysical surveys, and low-impact drilling. More intensive activity would require additional regulatory approvals."

A state government spokeswoman said Earth Resources Regulation received two applications to explore the same area of St Arnaud on the same day in July 2018.

One of these applications was from Navarre Minerals.

These competing applications were ranked in July 2020, and the lower-ranked application has subsequently been withdrawn.

The recent developments follow another mining exploration licence being granted for a patch of land in the southern part of Ararat Rural City.

On April 27, Westrock Minerals was granted a licence to explore for gold, copper and other metals between the Grampians and Glenthompson.

The state government ran an open tender for minerals exploration in 2018 across eleven blocks of land in western Victoria, which is collectively known as the Stavely Arc.

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