27th Jul 2007 07:00
Thor Mining PLC27 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 metalscompany focused on advancing tungsten-molybdenum and uranium projects in theNorthern Territory of Australia, today released its quarterly report for theperiod 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 9m19m @ 2.96% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 53m19m @ 1.79% Combined MoS2 + WO3 from 34m11m @ 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 NorthernTerritory ("Hale River") was completed during the quarter, with a total of 28holes completed for 1,829 metres of drilling. All samples have now beendispatched with results expected shortly. MOLYHIL TUNGSTEN - MOLYBDENUM PROJECT Molyhil development During the quarter Proteus Engineering continued with work on detailed layoutsand requests for tenders for equipment and long lead items, particularly for thesupply of the grinding mill. Recommendations on the grinding mills and wetscreens have been received, along with an assessment of responses from reagentsuppliers. 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 byindependent consultants Nagrom and IMO under the supervision of ProteusEngineering. Primary Molybdenum concentrate assayed 51.4% Mo, with a recovery of77.8%. The Primary Tungsten concentrate assayed 72.9% WO3, with a recovery of65.4%. Further cleaning and/or blending of the secondary tungsten product mayimprove 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 wishto proceed with any participation in the development of Molyhil. Thor has sincefocused on a strategy of securing an offtake agreement for Molyhil. Theexclusive mandate to secure a finance and offtake agreement was terminated withPenfolds Limited. With the receipt of final concentrate specifications and the updated resourcedue to be completed shortly, information packages have been sent to prospectiveoff-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 tothe end of September 2007. Native title During the March quarter a meeting was held on site at Molyhil with theTraditional Owners of the area, in conjunction with the Central Land Council ("CLC"). At this meeting all proposed mining infrastructure was approved by theTraditional 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 theenvironmental studies and this is currently with the Department of PrimaryIndustries, Fisheries and Minerals for review. The department indicated theproject will require a Public Environmental Review ("PER"). KLA has completedand submitted the PER document. The public review period of 28 days ends on the23rd 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 March2007 with a total of 25 RC holes drilled for 2,586 metres (as previouslyreported). Drilling was designed to in-fill the up-dip extensions of new zonesof Hanging Wall mineralisation discovered last year. In addition, several deeperRC holes were also completed to convert inferred resources to the indicatedcategory. The drilling has indicated that there are some significant tungsten grades over1% near surface in the Yacht Club lode which adds confidence to the rapidpayback time indicated from initial optimisation work on the 60m starter pit. The recent drilling was mainly above the 250m RL and concentrated on the YachtClub mineralisation. The drilling completed in 2006 focused on down dipextensions of the Southern zone. The results from this program indicated thatthe mineralised skarn is open both to the south and down plunge. The overall plunge of the Yacht Club and Southern lodes appears to be flatterthan originally thought and as a consequence re-interpretation of the ore modelhad to be completed. The recent drilling has also shown that the shape of thelodes is not tabular and they appear to have a more complex folded shape as isevident 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 thequarter, 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 (Related Shares:
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