According to HLB Mann Judd’s IPO Watch report, 96% of all funds raised in 2013 came from firms with a market cap over $100 million, compared to just 40% in 2012.

Resource stocks have traditionally dominated these numbers, but that was not the case in 2013, with falling commodity prices and investor sentiment cooling action over the past 12 months.

HLB partner Norman Neill told ILN sister publication MiningNews.Net there had been a “significant shift in investment appetite” over the past 12 months, with a marked move away from smaller miners.

“Through the commodity boom, resources IPOs probably become a little bit of the flavour of the month and once that started to pull back, investors generally looked for something different,” he said.

HLB partner Wayne Clark also said there had been some hiccups in the China boom and those worries had turned investors off mining stocks.

“Confidence is a huge issue in any market, and I think that’s dented people’s confidence, and to me that’s how I explain where we’re at at the moment,” he said.

In total, 49 companies listed on the ASX last year, a slight increase on 46 in 2012 but much less than the 104 completed in 2011 and 96 in 2010.

Of the 49, 30 companies, or 61%, were small caps. In 2012, 93% of new listings came from small caps.

Looking into next year, Neill said there was some evidence IPOs would pick up, but it remained to be seen where the action would centre.

“To me it’s unclear as to what extent the small cap recovery will occur in 2014, particularly one originating from the resources sector,” he said.

Looking at the broader market, Neill said it was likely there would continue to be more action from the big end of town.

“Anecdotally we hear evidence that people within the equity capital markets have been busy and there’s some evidence that several large deals will come to market in 2014,” he said.

“Whether that’s through IPOs or other alternatives is possibly the big question we’ll find out within the next six months.”

One small miner to successfully move through an IPO last year was gold and nickel explorer KIN Mining. Managing director Trevor Dixon told MiningNews.Net the move had been challenging but ultimately successful.

Dixon said frustrations finding joint venture partners and the difficulty of doing deals with larger companies ultimately drove him to form a public company.

“Three of my projects had just come out of a joint-venture, and it was that dissatisfaction with the partners and the way the industry was looking to do deals in the future that brought about the decision,” he said.

Dixon said many JV partners had failed to do justice to good deposits, which further spurred his move toward an IPO.

“When you sell or JV your property you want to see, from a vendor’s point of view, some justice done to the ground, you want to see some drill holes,” he said.

“The money is nice, but really, that’s not the business that I’m about. I’m about hoping to define some kind of ore body or deposit and get it developed.”

Once the decision to float had been made, Dixon said he spent several gruelling rounds briefing brokers to try and spark interest in the float.

For the most part these briefings were unsuccessful, and it was interest from other industry players, particularly drilling companies, that eventually got the company over the line.

“I think you need to appreciate that at that time a lot of brokers’ clients were pretty dark that every float they’d gone into prior to us getting away had halved at the time of listing, so I don’t think they were too happy about putting money toward any small cap exploration games,” KIN non-executive director Joe Graziano told MiningNews.Net.

“We tried our best to get some broker interest but ultimately we didn’t and I think, to a certain degree, that’s why we’ve maintained our price, because we don’t have any one or two brokers that have large pockets of our stock.”

KIN listed in 2013 at A20c, and has since hovered around the 30c level.

Both Dixon and Graziano attributed part of this success to the long-term vision of their shareholders, who are prepared to give the company a chance to develop the assets.

Taking this view, Dixon said short term fluctuations in commodity prices were less of a concern, with weathering the cycle part of doing business in the sector.

Mining IPO activity has also followed similar cycles in the past, with the boom years supporting some floats that otherwise would not have happened.

“That’s something that has characterised my entire career in the mining space,” Dixon said.

“When that window of opportunity opens, everybody wants to pile in.”

Despite KIN’s success the pipeline for new IPOs this year remains thin, and it looks likely to be another lean year for small cap resource companies.

“I still think within the local market things are really quite tight and quite difficult,” Norman said.