Quarterly Report - March 2010

RNS Number : 9514K

Thor Mining PLC

29 April 2010

 

THOR MINING PLC

MARCH 2010 QUARTERLY REPORT

Dated: 29 April 2010

The Directors of Thor Mining PLC ("Thor" or the "Company") (AIM, ASX: THR) the resources company focused on gold and base metals projects and advancing tungsten-molybdenum projects in the Northern Territory of Australia releases its activities report for the quarter ended 31 March 2010.

DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Molyhil tungsten-molybdenum development project ("Molyhil")

The price of Molybdenum Roasted Concentrates has increased to US$17.50/lb from a low of US$8.00/lb in April 2009, and the selling price of Tungsten APT has increased to between US$215/mtu and US$220/mtu from a low of US$185/mtu in July 2009.  While these prices remain below levels required for project development with confidence, the Directors believe that the fundamental drivers of the project are sound and that prices will in time recover to economic levels.

In the event that the commodity price recovery continues, the development of Molyhil tungsten will most likely proceed.

Activities during 2009 were devoted to identifying operating and capital cost reductions for the development of the operation.  It is expected that these efforts will considerably enhance Molyhil's outcomes once development can proceed.

GOLD EXPLORATION

The Dundas gold project ("Dundas")

During the quarter, the Company entered into an agreement to acquire Dundas in the Albany-Fraser Orogen within Western Australia's gold-rich Archaean Yilgarn Craton.

The Dundas tenements are located in an area of the Albany-Fraser Province where the south-westerly grain of the Province is displaced south-eastwards by about 50km. The overprint of a south-easterly structure appears to mimic elements of the Tropicana geology and apparently creates opportunities for dilation of the rock sequence - a structural element generally favourable for mineralisation.

In addition, the Dundas project area is located within the general southerly strike extension of the most gold-rich part of the Yilgarn province, the Wiluna-Kalgoorlie-Norseman greenstone belt. Thor Directors believe this may impart an enhanced prospectivity to the section of the Albany-Fraser Province containing the project area.

The gold potential of the Albany-Fraser Province has been revolutionised in the past 10 years by the discovery of the +5 million ounce Tropicana gold deposit and numerous other gold occurrences of economic potential. Tropicana has been shown to be just one of a cluster of deposits and to extend for at least one kilometre down the dip of the enclosing strata or structure. With the exception of an area surrounding the Dundas land package (Dundas Nature Reserve) which was quarantined from exploration from 1996 until late 2006, the Province is entirely controlled by significant gold mining entities such as AngloGold, Newmont, Dominion, Teck-Cominco, and Triton Gold Limited.

Until the Tropicana discovery, the Albany-Fraser Province was little explored for gold, its potential being hidden by perceived unfavourable geology, very poor outcrop, and in part, burial under younger sediments.

The first phase of exploration at Dundas, a soil sampling program covering that part of the project not covered by the previous BHP sampling in the 1990s, has commenced.  A maiden drilling program by Thor to test existing anomalies and anomalies expected to be identified, is scheduled for later in 2010.

BASE METALS EXPLORATION

Harts range project

An Airborne Electromagnetic Survey was conducted over the Harts Range exploration tenement EL24735 in the Northern Territory.  The survey consisted of 49 flight line traverses flown in a north south direction for a total of 314 line kilometres.

Interpretation of results is ongoing and should be available in early May.

Uranium projects

No exploration activities were conducted during the period.

CORPORATE AND FINANCE

Cash Position

The quarter closed with AUD$0.4 million cash reserves.

Issue of capital

During the quarter the Company raised approximately AUD$250,000 (approximately £140,000 at current exchange rates), by way of a placing of 16,666,667 new ordinary shares of 0.3p each in the capital of the Company through the issue of 16,666,667 voting CDI's in the Company at 1.5 cents per CDI to sophisticated investor clients of Taylor Collison Limited (Stockbrokers and Investment Advisors) in Australia before costs associated with the issue.

Personnel

During the quarter, respected and successful Australian gold explorer, Mr Trevor Ireland, was appointed a Non-executive Director of the Company.

Competent Persons Statement

The information in this report that relates to exploration results, mineral resources or ore reserves is based on information compiled by Stuart Till, who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. The services of Mr Till are engaged by Thor on a contractual basis.  Stuart Till 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'.  Stuart Till consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

Enquiries:

Mick Billing	[phone]	Thor Mining PLC	Executive Chairman
Laurie Ackroyd	[phone]	Thor Mining PLC	CFO/Company Secretary
John Simpson	[phone]	Daniel Stewart & Co. plc	Nominated Adviser

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.

 

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