Abenójar Tungsten Raises €170 Million in London’s Biggest Mining IPO Since 2018
Key Facts
Abenójar Tungsten raised about €170 million, equivalent to nearly $190 million, in its London initial public offering, the largest mining-company listing in the city by proceeds since 2018. Reuters said the comparison was with Kazatomprom’s listing that year, when it raised £311 million through a global depositary receipts offering. Kazatomprom was a Kazakh uranium producer, while Abenójar’s project focuses on tungsten and gold in Spain. The IPO was priced at 110 pence a share, implying a market capitalization of about £522.2 million when conditional trading began on October 27. Unconditional trading began on October 30, according to the London Stock Exchange listing announcement.
The IPO’s gross proceeds totaled about £142.5 million, or €170 million at an exchange rate of £0.8382 per euro. The institutional and retail offerings together comprised 103,171,871 shares at 110 pence each, according to the pricing announcement. Chief Executive Gonzalo García San Miguel said the proceeds would provide capital to continue developing the El Moto project toward its 2029 production target. He added that London was the “natural choice” because it provides access to investors specializing in mining, a group he said was best suited to support long-term development plans. After the IPO was priced, the chief executive described the next phase as a transition to execution.
The El Moto tungsten and gold project is located in Spain’s central Ciudad Real province. The European Union designated the project strategic under the Critical Raw Materials Act in March 2025. The project aims to contribute up to 20% of European demand for tungsten, according to the framing in the IPO information. In October 2026, a proposed plant to produce ammonium paratungstate received a separate strategic designation from that of the mine. The two designations place the project and proposed facility within Europe’s efforts to diversify critical raw material supplies.
Construction began in June 2026, and the project targets the start of production in the first quarter of 2029. The mine’s initial expected life is 18 years based on current reserves, according to the London Stock Exchange announcement. The operating plan includes underground mining to a maximum depth of about 350 meters. Spanish news agency EFE reported that the president of the Castilla-La Mancha region expected 433 direct jobs during operations. These figures outline the project’s announced operating profile as it moves from development to construction.
The company has signed a long-term exclusive agreement with Traxys to market the mine’s output, according to the London Stock Exchange announcement. The agreement provides a framework for selling expected production, while the IPO proceeds will fund continued project development through the targeted production date. The company’s shares were up 2% at 104 pence at 10:50 GMT on October 30, according to Reuters. The price recorded during trading was below the IPO price of 110 pence a share. The targeted production date in the first quarter of 2029 remains the project’s next announced milestone.