Hummingbird flies on to AIM
Published in Miles Nolan, Growth Company Investor on
Gold explorer Hummingbird Resources has enjoyed a successful AIM debut today with its shares soaring by as much as 22 per cent. Formed in 2005 Hummingbird is focused on West Africa and in particular East Liberia where it holds the largest area of mineral exploration land. It also has a significant iron ore license area in North Liberia, this is close to existing projects heralded by BHP Billiton and Arcelor Mittal.
The 14 licenses held span over 7,000 square kilometres and allow Hummingbird to search for gold, iron ore and other minerals. Of these the most advanced gold exploration project is in the Dugbe, Zia and Jababli license areas. The Dugbe Block F is undergoing resource drilling and has recently confirmed a gold resource of 20.9million tonnes at 1.208 grams per tonne.
Hummingbird has raised a total of £30.1 million at 167p a share to value the business at £89.1 million. Net proceeds are £23.3 million following expenses of the float and £4.6m for a number of selling shareholders. The new funds will be used to finance the next stage of its exploration efforts in Liberia to include stream sampling, trenching and further drilling.
The intention is to create a significant gold exploration and production group. This will also involve advancing the remainder of its early stage projects. The successful float by joint brokers Liberum Capital and Mirabaud Securities confirms there is still considerable appetite from investors for exploration stocks – indeed JP Morgan are on the register with a stake of 8 per cent. Hummingbird has got off to a good start today and with a strong management team backed by Ian Cockerill, former CEO of Gold Fields the shares, now at 192p offer speculative appeal.
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