Insider Media Limited

Birmingham-based Hummingbird Resources has raised $40m (£25.3m) to enter AIM. The gold exploration company will have a post-float market capitalisation of £89.1m and has issued ordinary shares at £1.67 per share.

The company has been exploring for minerals in Liberia, West Africa, since its establishment in November 2005.

The company has focused its exploration activities in largely unexplored areas of Liberia, close to geographical formations known to host multi-million ounce gold deposits in nearby countries such as Ghana and Mali, and its exploration licences cover over 7,000 square kilometres in total.

Following recent exploration and subsequent resource drilling, Hummingbird  recently confirmed an indicated and inferred gold resource of 20.90 million tonnes in Liberia.

The company was advised by the Birmingham office of law firm Cobbetts.

Partner Charles Bond said: “Hummingbird has made notable progress through it exploration of eastern Liberia and is now in a position to take its projects to the next stage of exploration and drilling. Its admission to AIM will provide the additional capital to allow the company to realise its ambitions. It’s proof of the talent, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit of a Midlands family.

“There is renewed optimism surrounding AIM and this latest admission represents further interest in the market from basic materials companies. Our pipeline suggests that this trend will continue into 2011.”

Hummingbird was co-founded by Dan Betts, the son of the chairman of Betts Metals. His father Stephen is also a non-executive director of Hummingbird, a Midlands family business that has been dealing in precious metals in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter for 250 years.