Trading under ticker “BOE,” the Perth-based oil shale hopeful successfully raised $3.5 million in its initial public offering, via the placement of 17.5 million shares at 20c each.
At 1pm (EST) yesterday afternoon, shares in Boss started trading at 30c. By the close of business, they were at 40c.
The company plans to use the IPO funds to pay for quantification and initial research to possibly develop the tasmanite oil shale deposit near Devonport in northern Tasmania.
Executive chairman Robert Grover, who is also a director of base metal, gold and uranium miner Contact Resources, told PNN previously that the company has already drilled 14 holes plus two diamond drill holes into the deposit.
He is joined on the three-man board by Perth geologist Ross MacLeod as technical director and experienced business management strategist Joseph Obeid in a non-executive capacity.
The company plans to develop the Latrobe oil shale project in Tasmania, estimated to contain 72 million tonnes (MMt) of the resource.
Of this figure, about 6MMt is at a depth of less than 20m and would be mined using opencut methods.
Grover said the company planned "significant" further infill and extension drilling, together with test work on a bulk sample, to upgrade the resource estimate and determine recovery rates.
"If these activities are successful, the company's aim will be to undertake a feasibility study to further develop the project towards mining of oil shale and extraction of an oil product," he said.
Oil shale is a fossil fuel but is not really oil. However, it contains kerogen, the organic matter from which oil and gas are formed.
Technologies involve a process known as "retorting", which involves super-heating the shale to 445-500C and removing the kerogen, which is then converted to oil.
Today, no oil is being produced from shale in Australia.
In Estonia, Russia, Brazil and China, oil shale is being mined but production is declining. In addition, Canada's vast tar sands have drawn much attention away from oil shale.
The US Energy Information Administration estimates the world supply of oil shale is 2.6 trillion barrels of recoverable oil, with almost half of that in the United States.
