OZ Minerals Funds Kapunda Copper Project Australia

RNS Number : 3319V

Thor Mining PLC

09 August 2022

 

9 August 2022

Thor Mining PLC

 

("Thor" or the "Company")

OZ Minerals Funding

Kapunda Copper ISR Project, South Australia

 

The directors of Thor Mining Plc ("Thor") (AIM, ASX: THR, OTCQB: THORF) are pleased to announce that OZ Minerals Limited (ASX:OZL) ("OZL") will provide funding support for technical investigations into In Situ Recovery (ISR) technology at the EnviroCopper Ltd ("ECL"), Kapunda copper-gold ISR Project, in South Australia.  Thor owns 30% equity in ECL.

Project highlights:

§ OZL has committed AUD$2.5 million over 18 months to support ISR research at the Kapunda project.

§ Funding is non-dilutive to Thor's 30% interest in ECL.

§ OZL funding will continue studies into the potential economic extraction of copper resources via ISR.

§ Collaboration between ECL and OZL will commence this quarter.

§ Anticipated outcomes will be shared IP, for ECL and OZL to extend to further projects, within South Australia and Australia.

§ ECL's plan is to develop a Mining Lease application for the Kapunda project.

Nicole Galloway Warland, Managing Director of Thor Mining, commented:

"We are very pleased to announce this collaboration between EnviroCopper and OZ Minerals, with OZL committing funds to continue the investigation at Kapunda Project into the potential economic extraction of copper via the low-footprint In-Situ Recovery mining technique.

This is a validation of the previous work by ECL on In-Situ Recovery of copper at the Kapunda project, in cooperation with The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ("CSIRO") and the University of Adelaide under a CRC-P grant (Commonwealth Research Centre Project).

The OZ Minerals funding is non-dilutive hence will not impact Thor's 30% equity interest in EnviroCopper. "

Figure 1: Kapunda Location Map showing Alford West (ECL) and Thor's Alford East

 Background

OZL's Think & Act Differently innovation team, through OZ Exploration Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of OZL, has committed AUD $2.5 million over 18 months into investigating the potential economic extraction of copper via ISR at the Kapunda Project (the "Research Agreement").  This funding expands on previous work by ECL in cooperation with CSIRO and University of Adelaide under a CRC-P grant (Commonwealth Research Centre Project) . Any resulting IP from the Research Agreement will be owned by ECL, and a license will be granted to OZL which will be worldwide, perpetual, assignable, irrevocable and royalty free.

The Kapunda ISR Copper-Gold Project is located approximately 90 kilometres north north-east of Adelaide in South Australia (Figure 1).  ECL manage the Kapunda project under a Joint Venture with tenement holder Terramin Ltd (ASX:TZN) ("Terramin") to earn 75% interest in the mineral rights over metals which may be recovered via ISR with Thor owning 30% equity in ECL. Terramin and ECR have estimated a combined Resource of 47.4 million tonnes at 0.25% copper containing 119,000 tonnes of copper using a 0.05% copper cut off. This Resource estimate is only in respect of that part of the Kapunda mineralisation that is considered amendable to ISR (copper oxides and secondary copper sulphides) and only reports mineralisation that is within 100 metres of the surface (ASX TZN Announcement 12 February 2018).

ECL is now working to developing Kapunda into an operational Copper ISR mine.

About EnviroCopper

Thor holds a 30% interest in ECL which is a public, unlisted company, with In-Situ Recovery Copper projects at Kapunda and Alford West , South Australia (Figure 1).  ECL manage the Kapunda Project in Joint venture with tenement holder Terramin to earn up to a 75% interest in the mineral rights over metals which may be recovered via ISR. (ASX:THR Announcement 11 November 2020).

This announcement is authorised for release to the market by the Board of Directors.

For further information, please contact:

Thor Mining PLC
Nicole Galloway Warland, Managing Director Ray Ridge, CFO / Company Secretary	Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]
WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Jessica Cave / Darshan Patel / Megan Liddell
SI Capital Limited (Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Nick Emerson
Yellow Jersey (Financial PR)	[e-mail]
Sarah Hollins / Henry Wilkinson	Tel: [phone]

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the UK version of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Competent Persons Report

The information in this report that relates to exploration results is based on information compiled by Nicole Galloway Warland, who holds a BSc Applied geology (HONS) and who is a Member of The Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Ms Galloway Warland is an employee of Thor Mining PLC. She has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which she is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Nicole Galloway Warland consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on her information in the form and context in which it appears.

 

Updates on the Company's activities are regularly posted on Thor's website www.thormining.com , which includes a facility to register to receive these updates by email, and on the Company's twitter page @ThorMining.

About Thor Mining PLC

Thor Mining PLC (AIM, ASX: THR; OTCQB: THORF) is a diversified resource company quoted on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange, ASX in Australia and OTCQB Market in the United States.

The Company is advancing its diversified portfolio of precious, base, energy and strategic metal projects across USA and Australia. Its focus is on progressing its copper, gold, uranium and vanadium projects, while seeking investment/JV opportunities to develop its tungsten assets.

Thor owns 100% of the Ragged Range Project, comprising 92 km² of exploration licences with highly encouraging early stage gold and nickel results in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

At Alford East in South Australia, Thor is earning an 80% interest in copper deposits considered amenable to extraction via In Situ Recovery techniques (ISR). In January 2021, Thor announced an Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 177,000 tonnes contained copper & 71,000 oz gold¹.

Thor also holds a 30% interest in Australian copper development company EnviroCopper Limited, which in turn holds rights to earn up to a 75% interest in the mineral rights and claims over the resource on the portion of the historic Kapunda copper mine and the Alford West copper project, both situated in South Australia, and both considered amenable to recovery by way of ISR.²

Thor holds 100% interest in two private companies with mineral claims in the US states of Colorado and Utah with historical high-grade uranium and vanadium drilling and production results.

Thor holds 100% of the advanced Molyhil tungsten project, including measured, indicated and inferred resources⁴, in the Northern Territory of Australia, which was awarded Major Project Status by the Northern Territory government in July 2020.

Adjacent to Molyhil, at Bonya, Thor holds a 40% interest in deposits of tungsten, copper, and vanadium, including Inferred resource estimates for the Bonya copper deposit, and the White Violet and Samarkand tungsten deposits. ⁵

Notes

¹ www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20210127-maiden-copper.gold-estimate-alford-east-sa.pdf

² www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20172018/20180222-clarification-kapunda-copper-resource-estimate.pdf  

³ www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/aim-report/20190815-initial-copper-resource-estimate---moonta-project---rns---london-stock-exchange.pdf

 ⁴ www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20210408-molyhil-mineral-resource-estimate-updated.pdf  

⁵ www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20200129-mineral-resource-estimates---bonya-tungsten--copper.pdf  

 

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