INTEGRA Mining was one of the Punter's successes. Not only did this junior explorer find high-grade gold deposits in WA, it successfully made the transition from explorer to producer and was then taken over at a handsome premium by Silver Lake Resources (ASX code SLR).
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It was a merger recommended by the Integra directors who walked away happily with plenty of gold in their pockets.
The Punter should have done the same.
Although he took some profits along the way he held on to SLR shares he received as a result of the merger, shortly before the gold price collapsed and the SLR share price did the same.
He has since sold them at a hefty loss.
Now the Integra team are coming back to the market with a new venture, Stavely Minerals.
The Stavely team has chosen to use the Australian Stock Exchange's (ASX) new BookBuild facility to raise the $6 million to $8m the company needs for two near-production copper/gold projects, Stavely and Ararat in Victoria, which have been bought from BCD Resources.
Book building normally involves banks and brokers contacting selected wealthy clients and inviting them to invest.
The ASX's alternative system allows for a certain amount of favouritism - the juiciest issues tend to be offered only to favoured clients.
The final price of the issue is the highest that will find buyers for all the stock on offer.
The ASX online BookBuild will be more transparent, and enables humble retail investors such as the Punter to be included in some offers.
However, investors will need to pay their broker a fee if they wish to bid.
In a standard initial public offer (IPO), the price and number of shares on offer is fixed.
In a book build if there is strong demand the price will be increased and the number of shares the company has to issue to get the money it wants will be reduced.
A minimum bid price of 20c has been set for the Stavely book build.
The Punter has been tempted to back the former Integra team by entering the auction.
But most recent IPOs by junior explorers have tanked, so he has decided to wait and see if the shares sink when they finally come to market early next month.
The Punter has no financial qualifications and no links to the financial services industry. He owns shares in a number of companies featured in this column.
