This extended period of joy for gold miners and explorers is encouraging more companies to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ and chase ambitions of listing on the ASX.

Investors are also keen to jump on board.

On Thursday, SSR Mining (ASX:SSR) listed on the ASX on the same day the US headquartered gold company finalised its $5bn merger with Turkey-focused gold producer Alacer Gold (ASX:AQG).

The merged company has an annual production of around 720,000oz of gold, and 7.7 million ounces of silver from four mines.

Victorian gold explorer North Stawell Minerals (ASX:NSM) closed its $20m initial public offering after being inundated with demand and expects to list on the ASX next week.

It ranks as the biggest gold float on the ASX since Dacian Gold (ASX:DCN) in 2012, which also raised $20m in its IPO.

Ethiopia-focused Megado Gold — which raised the maximum $6m at 20c per share in a bookbuild that was “multiple times oversubscribed” — is next in line to light up the ASX boards around October 26 under the ticker ‘MEG’.

In early September, OzAurum Resources raised ~$1m in oversubscribed pre-IPO funding to secure 80 per cent of two advanced gold projects in WA.

OzAurum expects to mandate a lead manager for an IPO in the next month.

There’s also gold-focused Siren Gold, Pathfinder Resources, and Miramar Resources still to come.

Meanwhile, gold continues to bounce around the mid-$US1900/oz mark: