In other words, if punters are demanding to be fed new stock, get your prospectus out pronto.

Prior to the GFC, promoters could flog any old dirt, particularly of the iron ore variety, and see it snapped up at usually inflated prices.

These days the quacking is much more muted, with investors still edgy about commodity prices, global credit, and the future in general.

Cash-strapped juniors have struggled to raise new funds on the lethargic Australian market, many of them turning to Canada or London’s secondary market for relief.

West African gold hopefuls Azumah Resources and PMI Gold, for instance, raised $C20 million and $C35 million respectively from the Canadian market in recent days.

But there are signs of renewed interest on these shores in credible mining IPOs, according to RBS Morgans corporate adviser John Polinelli.

“The market is looking for de-risked exploration opportunities, or advanced projects moving towards production,” he told MD.

“It is mostly driven by people struggling to find new stories that offer compelling value,” he said.

MD has found four separate Australian IPO proposals: two in iron ore, one in North African copper/gold and the other in North American coal.

The latter refers to Brisbane-based Ambre Energy, which has significant US thermal coal interests, together with a proposed coal-to-liquids project in Queensland.

Last week Ambre unveiled a new chairman – former Macarthur Coal director Terry O’Reilly – alongside plans to list on the ASX in “mid-2012”

Founded in 2005, Ambre has plenty of firepower to dangle before investors, including operating mines and plans to target Asian customers from export facilities on the west coast of the US.

Ambre's market capitalisation could be as much as $1 billion, making it the biggest new Australian miner to appear in some time.

A prospectus is yet to emerge, but MD understands Ambre may look to raise less than $100 million in the IPO, jointly managed by RBS Morgans, CBA and RBC.

In the WA context, mid-west iron ore hopeful Cashmere Iron is poised to come out of the shadows via an ASX listing by June 30.

Majority owned by its founding directors, including MD David Hendrie, Cashmere is likely to raise less than $100 million to fit in with a staged development of its one billion tonne namesake project west of Leonora.

Depending on the final pricing (and vendors can’t afford to be too greedy in this market) the company could end up with a post-listing value of more than $300 million, marking it as a notable player in the state’s shrinking mid-cap iron ore space.

The Cashmere Downs deposit, which is mostly magnetite, lies roughly 240km east of Gindalbie’s Karara venture.

Unlike Gindalbie, however, Cashmere plans to initially truck ore 180km to the public access railway at Menzies, and deliver it to Esperance.

After earlier delays to listing plans, Cashmere has settled on what it thinks will be a winner with local punters – a five million tonnes per annum direct shipping ore starter operation based on its 42Mt resources of detrital hematite.

Given the well documented problems with capital intensive magnetite projects in WA, this is probably a smart move.

A prospectus is likely to emerge by May.

Cashmere may face some competition in the iron ore space from Cape Lambert’s long-mooted $400 million-plus IPO of its Marampa deposit in West Africa.

The proposal, which would see Marampa listed on the London secondary market, has already been delayed several times over the past year because of market conditions.

But Cape Lambert hopes the promise of more mergers and acquisitions in Africa – potentially flowing from the merger of Xstrata and Glencore – will get the float over the line on this occasion.

Still in Africa, former Equinox Minerals chief executive officer Craig Williams recently took up the role of chairman at Perth-based Orecorp, an unlisted public company exploring for gold, copper and uranium in Mauritania and Ethiopia.

The company has $9 million in the kitty after securing seed capital from the likes of Anglo Pacific Group and the Telluride Investment Trust, and is planning to list in due course, Williams said.

That probably means the second half of this year, assuming no further meltdowns in either equity or commodity markets.

Orecorp, which is managed by former Mantra Resoruces CEO Matthew Yates, is looking to buy more assets, preferably gold and copper.

So there it is: four very different IPOs with marketable stories across the globe.

Let the spruiking begin.

This story first appeared on ILN's sister publication MiningNews.net.