Horizonte Minerals, with advanced mining projects in Brazil and Peru, is seeking at least £2.5 million on AIM.

Geologist and mining entrepreneur David Hall is chairman of Horizonte, which he says wants to identify potentially major mining projects and farm them out to big mining groups. At present, the company has three principal projects, two of which were previously held by the Minmet group, where Hall is a director and whose disposal programme he led.

Horizonte has 100 per cent of the 300 sq km Tangara gold project in north-east Brazil, where local artisan miners have found high-grade veins with 24 grammes of gold per tonne of ore. Previously, sulphide outcrops there have yielded ten to 20 grammes a tonne.

Some 50kms away is Falcao, formerly held by mining giant BHP, where Jeremy Martin, Horizonte's chief executive, reckons there is potential for a bulk tonnage operation. El Aguila in the mineral-rich Cerro de Pasco district of Peru was acquired by Minmet in 2002 from Apex Silver and earlier sampling has shown some impressive silver grades of up to 50 oz a tonne.

Minmet and Brazilian group MVR will each have 15 per cent of Horizonte after its flotation, which is being handled by broker Hichens Harrison. The company has already raised £100,000 privately at 10p and is now looking for a minimum of £2.5 million at between 25p to 25p, valuing Horizonte at £8 to £10 million.

Hall boasts the company is only interested in projects with the potential for two million oz of gold each or the equivalent in other metals. It has speculative appeal as long as current sector sentiment persists.