Wiluna Mining, holder of one of the largest undeveloped gold resources in Australia at 7 million ounces, is preparing to file prospectus documents next week for a fresh run at the ASX worth roughly $500 million on a fully diluted basis. The company was delisted in 2024, two years after collapsing into voluntary administration, and is now racing to relist and repay the creditors who backed its rescue.
Wiluna collapsed in 2022 after cost blowouts, tightening supplier terms and pandemic disruptions left it unable to fund its mine plan, and FTI Consulting restructured roughly $96 million in secured and unsecured debt. Contractors Byrnecut and Delphi, who backed that rescue, became Wiluna's largest shareholders and are now among the creditors pushing for an exit through the float.
The float has already slipped once, after a carbon in leach tank ruptured at the processing plant in July, forcing chief executive Victor Rajasooriar to suspend operations and cut staff. Wiluna now needs the $160 million to $200 million raise, led by Argonaut Securities and Barrenjoey Capital Partners, largely to repay its creditor group.
Elsewhere, Mark Creasy's AIM Mining Corporation, which holds about a 10 per cent stake, has abandoned its bid to buy Wiluna outright after an unsuccessful legal challenge.
The real driver is timing. Gold is trading above US$4300 an ounce, near record highs, and Wiluna's resource base, paired with a 2.1 million tonne a year processing facility, is exactly the scale investors are chasing in a hot gold market. The last attempt to list fell over within weeks, and this time Wiluna is betting the rally holds long enough not to give it another chance to slip.
