As foreshadowed by Growth Company Investor, Irish entrepreneur John Teeling has raised £1 million at 25p for Iran play Persian Gold, which joins AIM on 29 June.

Broker Rowan Dartington handled the pre-introduction placing, which values Dublin-headqartered Persian Gold at nearly £14 million.Mike Thomsen, currently chairman of AIM-quoted Cambridge Mineral Resources and Oil Quest and the man who first suggested probing Iranian 'alunite' deposits to Teeling, is acting as 'technical expert' to Persian, where he holds around five per cent.

Last November, the company, whose senior geologist is Iranian academic Dr. Monir Davoudzadeh, obtained a 1,800 sq km exploration concession in north-western Iran. An American with senior experience at mining group Newmont, Thomsen believed the alunite-bearing rock there could contain gold, as in rich gold-bearing sareas of South America -- but, as a US citizen, he as precluded by Washington's sanctions from exploiting these possibilities directly himself.

So far, sampling has found gold at low grades of up to two grammes a tonne. Persian Gold, with Teeling's long-time associates Jim Finn and David Horgan and his son Jack Teeling on the board, says it has a two-year strategy to investigate and develop its Iranian prospects -- and, although it now has some £1.1 million in the bank, 'the company is likely to require further funding'.

The long-term rewards potentially available from Iran could be exciting. But the risks, geological, financial and political, are clearly enormous.