Quarterly Report
Thor Mining PLC
27 July 2007
THOR MINING PLC
QUARTERLY REPORT - June 2007
Dated: 27 July 2007
Thor Mining PLC ('the Company' or 'Thor'), AIM, ASX: 'THR' the specialist metals
company focused on advancing tungsten-molybdenum and uranium projects in the
Northern Territory of Australia, today released its quarterly report for the
period to 30 June 2007.
HIGHLIGHTS
Molyhil Tungsten-Molybdenum Project ('Molyhil')
• Thor continued to focus on the development of its key asset Molyhil with
detailed layouts and requests for tenders for equipment and long lead items
being completed;
• Thor has now advanced negotiations for an off-take agreement with a number
of interested parties. We anticipate an agreement in principal will be
reached during August/September;
• Final metallurgical work and concentrate specifications produced with
better than expected grades. Primary Molybdenum concentrate assayed 51.4%
Mo, with a recovery of 77.8%. The primary Tungsten concentrate assayed 72.9%
WO3, with a recovery of 65.4%;
• The updated Molyhil resource estimate is due early August, following the
success of the reverse circulation drilling which identified extensions of
the mineralisation outside of the current mining reserve; and
• A number of intersections received from the Yacht Club mineralised zone
returned grades in excess of 1% combined MoS2 and WO3, highlights as
follows;
14m @ 3.40% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 9m
19m @ 2.96% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 53m
19m @ 1.79% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 34m
11m @ 1.00% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 29m
2m @ 3.08% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 22m
2m @ 1.26% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 39m
8m @ 1.13% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 46m
Uranium projects
Reconnaissance air core drilling at Hale River Uranium Project in the Northern
Territory ('Hale River') was completed during the quarter, with a total of 28
holes completed for 1,829 metres of drilling. All samples have now been
dispatched with results expected shortly.
MOLYHIL TUNGSTEN - MOLYBDENUM PROJECT
Molyhil development
During the quarter Proteus Engineering continued with work on detailed layouts
and requests for tenders for equipment and long lead items, particularly for the
supply of the grinding mill. Recommendations on the grinding mills and wet
screens have been received, along with an assessment of responses from reagent
suppliers.
To date, Proteus has issued the following long lead packages for tender:
Grinding mill, Dryers, Wet screens, Pressure plate filters, Flotation cells,
Thickener, Magnetic separators, Spirals, Plant substation and Reagents.
Final metallurgical results
Final metallurgical test work on the Molyhil deposit has been carried out by
independent consultants Nagrom and IMO under the supervision of Proteus
Engineering. Primary Molybdenum concentrate assayed 51.4% Mo, with a recovery of
77.8%. The Primary Tungsten concentrate assayed 72.9% WO3, with a recovery of
65.4%. Further cleaning and/or blending of the secondary tungsten product may
improve this recovery.
Finance and off-take negotiations
During the previous quarter, Thor signed a mandate with Hunan Nonferrous Metals
(Hunan). Unfortunately in late April Thor was notified that Hunan did not wish
to proceed with any participation in the development of Molyhil. Thor has since
focused on a strategy of securing an offtake agreement for Molyhil. The
exclusive mandate to secure a finance and offtake agreement was terminated with
Penfolds Limited.
With the receipt of final concentrate specifications and the updated resource
due to be completed shortly, information packages have been sent to prospective
off-take parties.
Due to the delays in the delivery of the updated resource by our consultants,
Thor now expects completion of the off-take negotiations could be pushed out to
the end of September 2007.
Native title
During the March quarter a meeting was held on site at Molyhil with the
Traditional Owners of the area, in conjunction with the Central Land Council ('
CLC'). At this meeting all proposed mining infrastructure was approved by the
Traditional Owners.
The Native Title Mining Agreement is being finalised.
Environmental and notice of intent ('NOI')
Keith Lindbeck and Associates ('KLA') have completed the NOI and the
environmental studies and this is currently with the Department of Primary
Industries, Fisheries and Minerals for review. The department indicated the
project will require a Public Environmental Review ('PER'). KLA has completed
and submitted the PER document. The public review period of 28 days ends on the
23rd of July. The PER can be viewed at the NRETA website:
http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/environment/assessment/index.html
Molyhil exploration
The Molyhil reverse circulation ('RC') drilling program was completed in March
2007 with a total of 25 RC holes drilled for 2,586 metres (as previously
reported). Drilling was designed to in-fill the up-dip extensions of new zones
of Hanging Wall mineralisation discovered last year. In addition, several deeper
RC holes were also completed to convert inferred resources to the indicated
category.
The drilling has indicated that there are some significant tungsten grades over
1% near surface in the Yacht Club lode which adds confidence to the rapid
payback time indicated from initial optimisation work on the 60m starter pit.
The recent drilling was mainly above the 250m RL and concentrated on the Yacht
Club mineralisation. The drilling completed in 2006 focused on down dip
extensions of the Southern zone. The results from this program indicated that
the mineralised skarn is open both to the south and down plunge.
The overall plunge of the Yacht Club and Southern lodes appears to be flatter
than originally thought and as a consequence re-interpretation of the ore model
had to be completed. The recent drilling has also shown that the shape of the
lodes is not tabular and they appear to have a more complex folded shape as is
evident in the outcropping portion of Yacht Club lode in the pit area.
URANIUM EXPLORATION
Hale River Uranium Project
Reconnaissance air core drilling at the Hale River was completed during the
quarter, with a total of 28 holes completed for 1,829 metres of drilling.
Five out of the planned six prospective areas at Hale River have been drilled.
Where channel sands are shallow (<50m), geological logging of the drill holes
has confirmed the presence of downward coarsening sandy sequences and
carbonaceous horizons within the targeted channels. These are complex
interbedded units with irregular boundaries noted between oxidised and
unoxidised sands.
Both air core and mud rotary drilling techniques were used, however drilling
coverage of a number of the proposed Hoist EM targets was incomplete due to
difficulties with sample recovery at depth. Because the sands are
unconsolidated, a number of holes did not reach bedrock and have therefore not
fully tested some of the deeper channels.
Samples taken mostly from the top of the upper carbonaceous horizon have
returned scintillometer readings several times background. All samples have now
been dispatched to Adelaide for analysis, with all results expected early
August.
Plenty Highway Project
Hoist EM results
A final report and interpretation of the Hoist EM data has been provided by Dave
McInnes of Montana GIS. Two highly prospective areas have been identified at
junctions within a large palaeo - channel drainage system containing abundant
conductive sedimentary units.
Orbit Drilling has a booking to complete the reconnaissance air core drilling
program over the area pending Central Land Council approvals. The Mine
Management Plan has been approved by the Northern Territory mines department.
Approximately 5,000m of drilling will be required. Minimal previous exploration
has been carried out on the tenement.
Other projects
During the quarter the Exploration Agreement was signed by the Arrernte peoples
the Traditional Owners of the area around the Hatches Creek project. The
tenement can now be granted and a final ground clearance needs to be completed
before work on the ground can begin.
No work was completed this quarter at Harts Range, Curtis Pound or Bundey River
Projects.
CORPORATE
During the quarter Hardman and Co leaders in corporate research in the UK
initiated coverage of Thor with a favourable valuation. A copy of this report
can be downloaded from our website.
Almost 917,000 warrants have been exercised from the beginning of the June
quarter to the date of this report, raising, approximately $172K for the
Company. On 23 July 2007 the Board approved a placement of 6.8m shares at 11
pence on the AIM market securing $1.75m dollars for short term working capital
requirements and continuance of the development of Molyhil. This placement did
not incur the normal 5-10% broking fees.
The Hatches Creek tenements were transferred from Molyhil Mining Pty Ltd to a
new wholly owned subsidiary, Hatches Creek Pty Ltd.
Tenements
No changes to tenements occurred during the quarter.
JORC Compliance
The information in this report that relates to exploration results, mineral
resources or ore reserves is based on information compiled by John Young, who is
a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. John Young is a
director of Thor Mining PLC. John Young has sufficient experience which is
relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration
and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as
defined in the 2004 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of
Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. John Young consents
to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the
form and context in which it appears.
Enquiries:
John Young + 61 (0)419 954 020 Thor Mining PLC Chief Executive Officer
John Simpson 020 7512 0191 ARM Corporate Finance Ltd Nominated Adviser
Leesa Peters 020 7429 6600 Conduit PR Limited Public Relations
or
Jos Simson 020 7429 6603
Nicholas Read + 61 (0) 8 9388 1474 Read Corporate Public Relations/Australia
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.
This information is provided by RNS
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