Gold mining company St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM) issued a proposal on Tuesday outlining its intent of consolidating its share base in order to lure more international institutional investors.

At present, the company said that it has a total of 1.95 billion shares on issue, which it is aiming to pare down into an estimated 326 million of streamlined shares by bundling six shares into a single stock.

St Barbara said that the resulting share price of its consolidated stocks should attract more investors as compared to its current price of 38 cents when the market closed on Monday.

The gold miner informed its shareholders that the seeming low price discourages sufficient interests to its stocks as it stressed that "some potential international institutional investors are precluded by their charters or mandates from investing in stocks with share prices less than $US1."

St Barbara argued that the planned consolidation of its shares would lead to "a more efficient capital structure and share price for a listed entity of the company's size and market capitalisation," which currently stands at about $742 million.

The company said that a formal introduction of the proposal would be made during St Barbara's annual shareholders' general meeting in November 18, where the board would ask shareholders to support the plan.

St Barbara clarified though that following the annual meet, the proposal's actual consolidation ratio could still be adjusted.