The mine is proudly run predominately by a local and national work force (96% national with 35% directly from local communities and 4% are expatriates). Since its time as an exploration project, Yanfolila has a strong history of supporting local communities with sustainable projects and livelihood initiatives outside of direct employment at the mine. These initiatives include the construction of multiple market gardens that now support over 900 (mainly) women with sustainable alternative income; poultry farms supporting over 60, predominately local youth with skills and alternative income; water infrastructure support with over 48 water wells in the surrounding communities and 14 large scale water towers and 3 deep bore holes constructed since operations began. In the field of education the company supports income for 11 local teachers. 

Yanfolila has committed to the Hummingbird Tree initiative with local communities providing 8,000-10,000 tree seedlings per year to the mine to support Yanfolila’s reforestation commitments. Yanfolila has also established and supports numerous artisanal craft initiatives such as such as beehive and honey manufacturing, a soap factory and shea butter manufacturing. One of the most serious commitments is in the field of community health, where, through our engagement with international remote healthcare specialists Critical Care International (CCI), Yanfolila has designed and rolled out a number of community health programmes aimed at improving health across a number of sectors from child malnutrition, FGM and malaria reduction where our annual spraying programme protects over 10,000 people in and around the local communities against malaria.       

Hummingbird Resources joined the World Gold Council as a member company in June 2020, and on the 4th September 2020, as part of its support of international best ESG practices, the board of Hummingbird declared its intent to adopt the Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs) and to work towards being fully compliant by the fourth quarter of 2022. On the 8th October 2020 the Company received its first independent assurance report for year one RGMP conformance, on the 3rd November 2021 the independent assurance report for year two conformance and it is on track for year three full conformance by the end of 2022. 

The Yanfolila mine is the first mine to have received SMO accreditation.  Gold from Yanfolila is mined responsibly under strict overall ESG standards, and is segregated from other sources of gold throughout the supply chain. The chain of custody from mine through refinery to sales is fully traceable and independently audited.

Hummingbird Resources is committed to mining gold in a traceable and transparent manner which does as much good as possible for the environment and communities in which it operates. The company plans to introduce a number of carbon reduction strategies in the near future, in an attempt to produce a net-zero mining operation.