Hummingbird Resources Focus on Delivering Mali Gold Project

By Alex MacDonald

LONDON--West African gold producer Hummingbird Resources PLC(HUM.LN) said on Friday it remains focused on developing its flagship Yanfolila gold project in Mali after having secured funding to push ahead with the project.

The U.K.-listed miner, which completed its purchase of the Yanfolila project from Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI.JO) in July, said Taurus Funds Management agreed to provide a $75 million debt facility to fund the construction of Yanfolila, $10 million of which has already been advanced as a bridge loan.

The company expects it will take 12 months to build the mine with a view to starting gold output in the first half of 2016.

Hummmingbird also said it continues to progress with its Dugbe 1 gold project in Liberia through additional exploration and development work.

Hummingbird reported a wider first half net loss of $3 million for the six months ended November 30, 2014 compared with a net loss of $1.47 million during the same period a year earlier.

The company had $10.3 million in cash at the end of the year.

It's been "a transformational half year for Hummingbird, now sitting pretty with a pre-construction stage project and funding," said analysts at Numis Securities.

Hummmingbird's shares are down 0.7% at 36.50 pence a share, resulting in a market capitalization of GBP31 million or $48 million.

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