athena resource travelling nicely, page-2

Athena Resources makes market debut at 10% premium
22-November-06 by AAP

Athena Resources Ltd shares closed today at a 10 per cent premium to its offer price in a bouyant debut on the Australian Stock Exchange.

The miner's shares started trading at 24 cents, four cents above its offer price of 20 cents before settling back to close at 22 cents.

Athena plans to use the $2.4 million in funds raised through the initial public offering to explore for nickel sulphides and gold in Western Australia.

The explorer's two main projects are the 1,600 sqkm Ravensthorpe project and Ashburton in the Pilbara.

"At the Ravensthorpe project the company is exploring for nickel sulphides associated with a series of differentiated dykes informally termed the Coujinup dyke swarm," chairman Edmond Edwards said in Athena's prospectus.

"Little previous exploration has been carried out specifically targeting mafic rocks of this age and type in the Ravensthorpe area."

Mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd's $2.34 billion Ravensthorpe Nickel Project, which is a mine and treatment plant, is unrelated but in the same region.

Athena's Ashburton project consists of one granted mining lease and three contiguous license applications covering a combined area of about 970 square kilometres.

"The Ashburton project area was initially selected on the basis of the regional geophysics which show a number of features often associated with large mineral systems," Mr Edwards explained in the prospectus.

"The combination of folds and thrust faults in rocks of the Ashburton and Capricorn formations, and granite intrusions are of particular interest."

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