Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM) told investors that its partner Petmin (LON:PTMN) has invested another US$1.5 million into the Iron Bird Resources joint venture company.
Through Iron Bird the two companies are exploring the Mt Ginka iron ore licence in northern Liberia.
The investment secures Petmin’s 50 percent stake in the Iron Bird and it means the venture is now fully funded for the next stage of exploration work. Going forward, both Hummingbird and Petmin will be required to equally fund Iron Bird.
"We are very pleased that Petmin has invested a further $1.5m to complete its second phase of investment,” said Hummingbird chief executive Dan Betts. “This investment underlines Petmin's confidence in the potential of this project, which recent airborne geophysics have shown to be significant."
Petmin chief executive Jan du Preez added: "Our investment of the US$1.5m secures our 50% interest in Iron Bird and highlights the potential of what we see in this well located project.”
Last month Iron Bird confirmed that Mount Ginka iron ore target has significant scale potential, based on what it called ‘hugely exciting’ aeromagnetic survey results. The partners flew a helicopter-borne aeromagnetic and radiometric survey over the license, covering a total of 1,650 line kilometres.
Hummingbird said the results proved the presence of a continuous iron formation that extends along a 20 kilometres strike. According to the survey results this unit has at surface widths between 150-250 metres and the unit is shown to extend to approximately 1,000 metres down dip.
The next phase of work on Mt Ginka will comprise geological mapping, trenching, drilling and metallurgical testing.
Through the programme Iron Bird will try to obtain representative samples of the ore body so it can confirm the earlier grab samples which ranged from 33-54 percent iron. It also aims to demonstrate that the ore body is both extractable and economic.
In the future drilling will give an indication of the size of the deposit, Hummingbird said.