The Board of Thor Mining Plc (Thor), has announced that a substantial resource estimate containing 119 000 t of copper, considered amenable to in situ recovery techniques (ISR), has been released by Environmental Copper Recovery SA Pty Ltd. (ECR) and Terramin Australia Limited (Terramin).
Following the announcement of this information on the ASX, the trading halt has been ended and trading in Thor’s securities has been restored on ASX.
Thor, as announced on 1 August 2017, is earning up to a 60% interest in ECR, which in turn is earning, from Terramin, up to a 75% interest in the mineral rights and claims over the portion of the historic Kapunda copper mine in south Australia recoverable by way of in situ recovery techniques. Subject to full earn in Thor would therefore hold an effective 45% interest in Kapunda.
Mick Billing, Executive Chairman, commented: "An inferred resource estimate containing 119 000 t of copper is well above expectations and is outstanding news for our investors.
"Global copper prices have moved upwards strongly over the past 12 months, and we expect this trend to continue. However, at the price at the date of this announcement of approximately US$7000/t, this inferred resource demonstrates that the project has considerable potential value.
"Thor is uniquely placed with a right to earn into an effective 45% interest in this strategically significant project, just at a time when new copper opportunities are being sought in safe jurisdictions.
"The advancements in ISR and lixiviant technologies offer new methods to extract copper. The ISR method is considered to be a viable method of extracting the copper in this location with minimal disturbance to the existing surface profile.
"We are very pleased to have been able to access the Kapunda opportunity at an early stage and are naturally delighted with the resource findings announced.
"To upgrade the resource estimate from Inferred to Measured and/or Indicated status does not require significant infill drilling, rather successful pump testwork and field recovery trials, which will include modest levels of drilling to conduct that work.
"Thor and ECR are committed to ongoing community engagement being fundamental in the development of the Kapunda project, and we will engage widely through review and feedback of our plans and processes as we advance this important project. We look forward to updating investors regularly as news on this project becomes available."