Prospecting for gold calls for a lot of patience and hard work, always under the shadow of potentially scant reward.

Navan-based gold exploration firm Ormonde Mining is a few steps above panning in the creek but, in the week of its admission to the London AIM, managing director Kerr Anderson would attest to the stresses involved in a volatile industry.

Having led the company since a major restructuring in 2001, when it moved its operations from Tanzania to Spain, Anderson admits the past four years have not been without uncertainty.

"When I joined in 2001, if you had told me that we'd be where we are now in four years I would have said that's fantastic, but I never could have envisaged it would be such a rocky road," he says.

"As well as the global economic downturn, we had to write off our operations in Africa and find the funding to start afresh in Spain.

"In this business, because of the timescales involved, you're relying on investment for a long time before you can start generating cashflow.

"You always need to find the right balance between loans and equity, and avoid dilution by selling the minimum amount for the maximum price - it's a cyclical business. Security and stability only come when you can make money independent of investment."

That security may soon be within reach, as Ormonde is on the verge of the transition from an exploration firm to a production firm. The company is involved in five separate properties in Spain and Anderson estimates that the most advanced, La Zarza, near the Portuguese Algarve, should be in gold production by the end of 2007.

In March, the board raised €4 million in a share placing to help fund this transition. The offer, 30 million shares at 14 cent each, was heavily oversubscribed to the tune of €7 million.

Last week, Ormonde transferred its quotation from the Exploration Securities Market to the new Irish Enterprise Exchange. On Tuesday, it was admitted to the AIM in London, reflecting the increased interest in the company in the UK and worldwide. The company's share price has also progressed, from six cent two years ago to the high teens this week.

Anderson is pragmatic about the reasons behind the rise in the company's fortunes. "We have good people on the ground. To properly assess the potential of a property, you need to be able to trust your geologists, and we can trust ours.

"The guys on the ground have to have more than technical expertise - they need to be able to assess the financial implications involved in each plot as well.

"It's no good to us if the specialists can't see beyond the science. We want them to tell us to use a certain drilling method on this plot, a different one over there, and to get out of that plot and never go back to it again, because it's not financially viable.

"At the other end, we also have mining folk on the board, with a strong background in the industry. So there is no divide between the money men and the technical experts."

Then there are the locals. "We have a very good relationship with the Spanish authorities regarding getting permits and so on. Also, on the geopolitical landscape, the risks of working in Spain are as low as you're going to get. "

The AIM move is the logical next step for Ormonde. It comes after a long period of hard sell by the board. When Anderson joined, less than 10 per cent of the shareholders were based in the UK. That number has since risen to almost 49. Ormonde sees institutional investment as a necessity and the majority shareholder after the board is JP Morgan Chase with 8.2 per cent, followed by HSBC with 6.7 per cent.

"A lot of the institutional investors prefer to see you in London, that's how they work," says Anderson.

"We have a good story and when you have a good, strong story in a good market, investors will believe in you. That's the kind of vocabulary they speak.

Courting investors is something that Anderson, a geologist by profession, has had to learn as he goes along. "I had been an exploration manager and if I wanted funding, I simply had to apply for it. Now I am the one who has to find the funding."

Having started off studying mathematics in Glasgow, Anderson was lured away from pure theory to geology and "things that sparkle" but, on graduation, he found his employment opportunities limited.

"When I finished my degree in 1984, North Sea oil was very big and that's where all the jobs were, but I wasn't interested in oil. There were no jobs in metals, so I applied for a PhD in Strathclyde and I was working summers in Tara," he says.

"Then I ended up getting my first job in the area, with Navan Resources, in about 1986. I've been living and working in the area for almost 20 years now.

"I was with Navan Resources for quite a long time and I think by the time Ormonde came in for me in 2001, it had run its course, the fun had gone out of it.

"At that point, Ormonde's operations were based in Tanzania but when we sat down to reassess our situation, we decided that we couldn't get funding for what we wanted to do.

"So we moved to Spain where Ormonde had previously not been involved at all, but where I had a lot of experience from my last job. We had also looked at Morocco but we felt Spain was the place to be."

That move has been a successful one so far for Ormonde, and admission to the AIM is a positive step, but whether it will outgrow minnow status permanently remains to be seen.

Having sorted out finance, a lot now depends on what lies underground and what return La Zarza and the other mines produce.

There are few Klondike gold rushes in the stock market, but Davys is optimistic: "The market continues to follow the sector because, from time to time, significant real value leverage is created and a viable business can be achieved. In these cases, a very high return can be achieved. We believe Ormonde is such a case."