West African iron ore play Bellzone Mining plans to raise more than $100 million (£66 million) to develop deposits in Guinea.

Investment group Canaccord Adams is helping raise the money for Bellzone, which is seeking to tap and substantially increase an estimated iron ore resource of 2.4 billion tonnes and to put in place the required infrastructure to shift it. The company has a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Chinese interests to fund a feasibility study on the Guinea project.

Canaccord Adams says the as-yet un-priced AIM float placing would put a value of between $400 million and $600 million on Bellzone, which is headed by Aussie entrepreneur Nick Zuks, formerly of Kingstream Steel and New Millennium Resources, and boasts Simon Farrell, boss of Coal of Africa, as a non-executive director. The company expects to be in production in four years.