Additional Information Provided to the ASX

RNS Number : 6976N

Thor Mining PLC

02 October 2012

 



THOR MINING PLC

Additional Information Provided to the Australian Securities Exchange

Dated: 2 October 2012

Thor Mining Plc ("Thor" or "the Company") (AIM, ASX: THR) has received a request from the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") to add additional information to the Company's Annual Report in relation to the issue of gender diversity. The Company has responded and a copy of the ASX letter and the Company's response are set out below.

Enquiries:

Mick Billing	[phone]	Thor Mining PLC	Executive Chairman
Allan Burchard	[phone]	Thor Mining PLC	CFO/Company Secretary
Gerry Beaney/ David Hignell	[phone]	Grant Thornton Corporate Finance	Nominated Adviser
Nick Emerson/ Renato Rufus	[phone]	Simple Investments	Broker
Alex Walters/ Lavinia Fiamma	[phone] [phone]	Cadogan PR	Financial PR

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.

1) Letter from ASX to the Company

ASX Compliance Pty Limited

ABN 26087 780 489

20 Bridge Street

SydneyNSW 2000

PO Box H224

Australia Square

NSW 1215

Telephone [phone]

Facsimile  61 2 9241 7620

www.asx.com.au

24 September 2012

Mr Michael Billing / Mr Allan Burchard

Executive Chairman / Company Secretary & CFO Thor Mining PLC

Level 1

32 Richmond Road

KESWICK SA 5035

By Email

Dear Mr Billing &Mr Burchard,

Thor Mining PLC(the "Company")

We refer to the Company's annual report for the year ended 30 June 2012 ("Annual Report") released to the market on 19 September 2012, the Company's disclosures about its corporate governance practices and in particular its diversity policy.

Listing rule 4.10.3 requires that an entity include inits annual report:

"A statement disclosing the extent to which the entity has followed the recommendations set by the ASX Corporate Governance Council during the reporting period. If the entity has not followed all of the recommendations the entity must identify those recommendations that have not been followed and give reasons for not following them. If a recommendation had been followed for only part of the period, the entity must state the period during which it had been followed."

Principle 3 of the 2010 amendments to the 2nd edition of the ASX CorporateGovernance Principles and Recommendations states that Companies should actively promote ethical and responsible decision- making and that:

"Companies should publish their policy concerning diversity, or a summary of that policy, and disclose annually their measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity, their progress toward achieving those objectives and the proportion of women in the whole organisation, in senior management postings and on the board."

More specifically the following recommendations set out in more detail the requirements:- Recommendation 3.2

"Companies  should  establish  a  policy  concerning  diversity  and  disclose  the  policy  or  a summary of that policy.  The policy should include requirements for the board to establish measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity and for the board to assess annually both the objectives and progress in achieving them."

Recommendation 3.3

"Companies should disclose in each annual report the measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity set by the board in accordance with the diversity policy and progress towards achieving them."

Recommendation 3.4

"Companies should disclose in each annual report the proportion of women employees in the

whole organisation, women in senior executive positions and women on the board."

Recommendation 3.5

"Companies should provide the information indicated in theGuide to reporting on Principle 3."

The Listed Entities Updates dated 1 October 2010 and 7 February 2012 reminded listed entities of their obligation to report under the 2010 amendments to the 2nD edition of the ASX CorporateGovernance Principles and Recommendations as set out above in their annual report for their first financial year commencing on or after 1 January 2011.

ASX Listings ("ASXL") has reviewed the diversity policy disclosures in the annual reports of all entities. Upon our review ofthe Company's Annual Report, ASXL could not identify a statement in the annual reportconfirming whether the Company had followed or not followed the diversity recommendations of the Council.

ASXL attaches particular importance to encouraging a consistently high standard of listed entities'

disclosures about the Council's corporate governance recommendations.

In light of the Company's non-disclosure in respect of the diversity recommendations in its Annual Report, ASXL requires that the Company make additional disclosure to the market in compliance with listing rule 4.10.3 about the extent to which the Company has followed or not followed each of the diversity recommendations of the Council.

The additional disclosure should be sent to me by e-mail at [e-mail].  It should not be sent to ASX Market Announcements. This is requested as soon as possible and, in any event, not later than 3.30pm E.S.T. onTuesday, 2 October2012.

Under listing rule 18.7A, a copy of this letter and the additional disclosure will be released to the market, so your response should be presented in a suitable form.

Should the Company fail to do so, ASXL may consider suspending the Company's securities from quotation until the Company releases to the market a diversity policy that discloses the required information.

If you have any queries about this letter, or about the Council's recommendations and the Company's

reporting obligations in relation to those recommendations, please contact me immediately.

Yours sincerely,

Cameron Bill

Senior Adviser, Listings

2) Letter from the Company to the ASX

Mr Cameron Bill

Senior Adviser, Listings

ASX Compliance Pty Ltd

20 Bridge Street

Sydney NSW 2000

2 October 2012

Dear Mr Bill,

Diversity Disclosures

We refer to your letter of 24 September 2012, principally related to the absence of disclosure of information in relation to "Diversity" in our June 2012 Annual Report.

We acknowledge that our Annual Report as released to ASX on 19 September 2012 overlooked reference to the company's diversity policy as required by the ASX Corporate Governance Council and Listing rule 3.10.3.

We propose that the "ASX Additional Information" component of our Annual Report should be expanded as follows:

Recommendation 3.2

The Board acknowledges the desirability of achieving gender diversity across the company, including within its permanent employees and also those individuals contracted to the company on long term, part time bases.

The Board's policy is to give women equal opportunity whenever a position is created.

In view of the limited size of the company's workforce, the company has not, at this time, developed a more formal policy on diversity.

Recommendation 3.3

In view of the limited size of the Company's workforce, the company is yet to develop measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity. The company recognises the importance of these objectives, and will revisit this matter as we expand our workforce.

Recommendation 3.4

The following table discloses the proportion of women employees and contractors:

	Number of Women Employees	Total Employees	Proportion  of Women Employees
Directors	0	5	0%
Other Senior Executives	0	1	0%
Other Permanent Employees	3	4	75%
Contractors	0	3	0%
Total	3	13	23%

Summary

The company proposes to include the above information in the printed version of its Annual Report, which is currently in the final stages of drafting.

The company will also, subject to agreement from ASX, lodge an updated copy of the Annual Report on finalisation of this matter.

Yours Faithfully

Allan Burchard

Company Secretary

 

END

 

 

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