10th Jun 2014 08:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Thor Mining PLC Tuesday said it has signed a deal for the acquisition of the Pilot Mountain tungsten project in the US state of Nevada, for a total cost of AUD2.3 million in shares and assumed loans.
The Australia-based mineral and development company said that, subject to approval, it has agreed to buy the project from Black Fire Minerals Ltd for 418.8 million shares in Thor, with a 12 month escrow period, and the assumption of loans totalling AUD625,000, payable by September 30, 2015.
The Pilot Mountain project, roughly 200 kilometres south of Reno, comprises four closely linked deposits which have already been subject to low scale mining activities during the 20th century: Desert Scheelite, Gunmetal, Garnet and Good Hope.
The Desert Scheelite site has been most advanced, and already has a JORC compliant indicated and inferred resource of 6.8 million tonnes at 0.31% tungsten trioxide, while the Garnet and Gunmetal site's currently have an exploration target of 1 to 2 million tonnes each.
The Good Hope site comprises some minor historic workings and one drill hole amongst several, which intersected a 43 metre space at 0.41% tungsten trioxide from the surface.
Thor, which also currently holds the Molyhil tungsten project in Australia, added that preliminary phases of metallurgical testwork have been started at the Pilot Mountain site, yielding 75% recovery of scheelite, an important ore of tungsten, at a relatively coarse grind, suggesting the possibility of significant improvements.
"The combined resource inventory, following this acquisition, of over 30,000 tonnes tungsten, plus significant upside via drilling known tungsten deposits, potentially could position Thor towards the top end of non-Chinese tungsten miners," Executive Chairman Mick Billing said in a statement. "This is reinforced by the grades of both resources which are above many Western world deposits, suggesting the potential for low cost production."
Thor Mining shares were up 12% to 0.179 pence, putting it in the top AIM ALL-Share risers during early trading on Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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