How to take a mining company public: the investor readiness checklist

A mining company goes public by one of four routes: an initial public offering, a reverse takeover of a company that is already listed, a qualifying transaction with a capital pool company, or a direct listing by a company that is already a reporting issuer. TMX Group says its listing process takes three to six months on average. Your advisers run the documents. What decides how the company is received is what an investor finds on the first day: a story they can repeat, a website that answers due diligence, a deck, a film and news to follow.

This is the checklist for that day, after a short guide to the routes and the timeline.

The four routes to a listing

TMX Group lists four ways to list on its exchanges. Each has its own documents, costs and exchange tests.

• 01Initial public offering. The company files a prospectus, usually with an underwriter or agent, raises money from new investors and lists. In TMX’s sample timetable the preliminary prospectus is filed around week six and the shares list around weeks 14 to 15. An IPO is marketed through a roadshow, so the story and the deck are tested in meetings before the first trade.
• 02Reverse takeover. A private company merges into one that is already listed. Under TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.2 it is a reverse takeover when the new shareholders end up with more than 50 per cent of the voting shares and there is a change of control. The company inherits a listing and a shareholder register, and often reaches the market with less time in front of investors than an IPO gives.
• 03Capital pool company and qualifying transaction. A capital pool company is a listed shell with cash and no business. Under TSX Venture Exchange Policy 2.4 its IPO must raise between $200,000 and $9,500,000 at no less than $0.10 a share, and seed, IPO and private placement money together cannot exceed $10,000,000. Its qualifying transaction is, in TMX’s words, “effectively a reverse takeover of a CPC by an operating business”. The current policy sets no deadline for completing one.
• 04Direct listing. The Canadian Securities Exchange lists companies that are reporting issuers in good standing in a Canadian jurisdiction, including a company that has filed a prospectus. Its listing policy does not require money to be raised at the moment of listing, but an exploration company still has to meet the exchange’s tests, including at least $200,000 of working capital at listing.

Each exchange tests the property, the work programme, the money and the shareholders in its own way. We compare the TSXV, the CSE, ASX and AIM side by side in a separate guide. One change matters for Venture listings: on 31 March 2026 the TSX Venture Exchange removed its requirement for a sponsor.

How long it takes

The exchanges give a few fixed points. TMX says three to six months on average. ASX says it takes around four to six weeks to process a complete application, which is its own review and not the whole IPO. On AIM the company announces its expected admission at least ten business days before the date. None of these clocks includes the time it takes to make what investors will see.

So work backwards from the listing date.

1. 01Before the filing. Agree the equity story with the board and the advisers. It goes into the prospectus or the circular in the lawyers’ words, and everywhere else in yours, and the two must say the same thing.
2. 02During the review. Build the website, the deck and the film while the exchange and the regulator review the documents. Technical statements go to your qualified person as they are written, not at the end.
3. 03Before marketing starts. The deck and the film are ready for the roadshow or the first meetings. The website is built and waiting, and nothing that would be new information goes public before it is disclosed.
4. 04Listing day. The news release goes out, the website goes live and the first posts follow the release, never the other way round.
5. 05The first ninety days. A calendar of news and content, so the investors who found the company on day one have a reason to come back.

The investor readiness checklist

This is what should be in place before the first trade. Each item is something an investor will look for within a day of hearing the company’s name.

• 01The equity story. Three questions answered in words a generalist can repeat: why this project, why this team and why now. For Teako Minerals we rebuilt the brand around the future of Norwegian mining, the company bringing mining back to Norway. That is a story. A list of licences is not.
• 02The investor website. The projects, the share structure, the news releases, the filings and the corporate presentation, readable on a phone. Canada’s national disclosure policy asks companies to post on their website the documents they file and the materials they give analysts and investors. The pages it needs are set out in what a listed miner’s investor website needs.
• 03The corporate presentation. A deck drawn from the same design system as the site, so a fund manager meets the same company in the meeting and in the search result. It is not the technical report in slides.
• 04The company film. Most investors in a new listing will never visit the project. A short film shows them the ground and the people, and its cut-downs run on the site, in meetings and in the feed. For Teako we shot The Sleeping Giant, a docuseries in four episodes, on site in Norway.
• 05The news calendar. What the company expects to publish in its first six months: drilling, assays, permits, studies. Attention fades after a listing, and a calendar keeps the company in front of the investors who found it. Teako’s go-live campaign ran for four weeks across six channels.
• 06The disclosure set. A current NI 43-101 technical report for each material property, a qualified person who signs off technical statements, cautionary language for forward-looking information, and a disclosure policy that says who may speak for the company, and where.
• 07The sign-up. A way for an investor to follow the company, on the website from day one. An email list is the one audience a company owns outright.

Six common mistakes

• 01Nobody owns the story. The lawyers own the documents and the bankers own the book. If nobody owns what investors will read, the prospectus language becomes the website.
• 02The website was built for a private company. A site with no share structure, no filings and no news page tells an investor the company is not ready for them.
• 03The deck is written for geologists. Geologists write for geologists, and most of the money is not held by geologists.
• 04Nothing follows the first news release. The listing is one day. Without a calendar the next news is months away, and the audience has moved on.
• 05Marketing runs ahead of disclosure. Securities law limits what a company may say while it is offering shares, and the exchanges require material information to go out by news release first. Ask counsel before anything is published, not after.
• 06Paying for a promotional debut. On the TSX Venture Exchange and the CSE, an investor relations or promotional engagement is announced with its provider and its cost, and pay tied to the share price or trading volume is not allowed. Choose partners you would be happy to name in a news release, because you will have to.

How we help

We make what investors see: the equity story, the investor website, the deck, the film and the content around the listing, made by one team so the company says one thing everywhere. We work with your counsel, your investor relations lead and your qualified person, and they have the last word on what is published.

The work is set out on our going public page. If a listing is on your calendar, book a call and tell us the exchange, the route and the date.

Questions