REG - Thor Energy PLC - Drilling Commences

Thor EnergyAnnouncement

08/07/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 4049V  Thor Energy PLC  08 July 2024

8 July 2024

Thor Energy PLC

 

("Thor" or the "Company")

 

Drilling Commences

Alford West Copper ISR Project, South Australia

 

The directors of Thor Energy Plc ("Thor") (AIM, ASX: THR, OTCQB: THORF) are
pleased to announce drilling has commenced at Alford West Copper ISR Project,
in South Australia. This copper project is held by EnviroCopper Limited
("ECL") (Figure 1), in which Thor holds 26.3%
interest.

Highlights:

§ The drilling program comprises three water bores for hydrogeological baseline assessment, and subsequent push-pull and tracer testing as part of the first phase of In-Situ Recovery ("ISR") Site Environmental Lixiviant Trials.

§ This program is the first step in assessing whether the Alford West
orebodies are amenable for sustainable recovery of copper using ISR. This is a
low impact, small footprint form of metal recovery that significantly reduces
the surface impacts and allows rehabilitation of the land back to its original
farming state.

§ The work at Alford West, follows on from Thor's successful drilling and
copper recovery hydrometallurgical work at its adjacent Alford East Copper ISR
Project (ASX/AIM: 11 December 2023).

§ If these ISR trials are successful, they will significantly increase the
potential to extract economic copper via ISR along the Alford Copper Belt.
This area of known copper oxide resources extends over 50kms along the contact
between the Tickera Granite and the Wallaroo Metasediments (Figure 1).

§ The Alford West Copper ISR Project includes the Bruce, Larwood and Wombat
deposits (Figure 1), with a Mineral Resource Estimate of 66.1Mt @ 0.17% Cu
containing 114,000t of contained copper (ASX/AIM: 15 August 2019 (Table 1).

Photo 1: Drill Rig Alford West Project

 

 Leon Faulkner, Managing Director of EnviroCopper, commented:

 "This work on the Alford West Project further strengthens both
EnviroCopper's strategy to develop ISR copper projects for the state of South
Australia and its relationship with key partners including Alligator Energy."

 

Nicole Galloway Warland, Managing Director of Thor Energy, commented:

"Water Bore drilling has now commenced at ECL's Alford West Copper Project.
The first step will assess whether the Alford West orebodies (Bruce Larwood
and Wombat deposits) are likely to be amenable to sustainable recovery of
copper using ISR. If the trials are successful, it will highlight the
significant copper potential of the Alford Copper Belt (comprising Alford East
and Alford West ISR Copper Projects), and its potential to be a future "green"
copper-producing opportunity for South Australia.

"We look forward to updating the markets as the field activities progress."

 

Figure 1: Alford West Location Map showing the extent of the Alford Copper
Belt (left), and Thor's Alford East Copper ISR Project.

 

Table 1: Alford West Mineral Resource Estimate - JORC 2012 (ASX/AIM: 15 August
2019)

 ALFORD WEST MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE (15 AUG 2019)
 RESOURCE CLASSIFICATION  DEPOSIT  TONNES  CU    CU          AU      AU

                                   (MT)    (%)   (METAL T)   (g/t)   (OZ)
 Inferred                 Wombat   46.5    0.17  80,000
                          Bruce    11.8    0.19  22,000
                          Larwood  7.8     0.15  12,000      0.04    10,000
                          TOTAL    66.1    0.17  114,000

Notes:

• Figures are rounded to reflect appropriate levels of confidence.
Apparent differences may occur due to rounding.

• Cut-off grade used of 0.05% Cu

 

 

Table 2: Alford East Mineral Resource Estimate as of 22 January 2021-JORC 2012
(ASX/AIM: 27 January 2021)

 

ALFORD EAST MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE (22 JANUARY 2021)

 Domain       Tonnes (Mt)  Cu %  Au g/t  Contained Cu (t)  Contained Au (oz)
 AE_1         24.6         0.12  0.021   30,000            16,000
 AE_2         6.8          0.13  0.004   9,000             1,000
 AE_3         34.9         0.09  0.022   33,000            25,000
 AE_4         8.0          0.11  0.016   8,000             4,000
 AE_5         11.0         0.22  0.030   24,000            11,000
 AE-8 (NP)    31.3         0.19  0.008   61,000            8,000
 AE-7 (LW_E)  7.7          0.14  0.025   10,000            6,000
 AE-6 (LW_W)  1.3          0.13  0.011   2,000             500
 Total        125.6        0.14  0.018   177,000           71,500

Notes:

· MRE reported on oxide material only, at a cut-off grade of 0.05% copper
which is consistent with the assumed ISR method

· Thor Energy PLC has 80% interest in the Alford East Project

· All figures are rounded to reflect appropriate levels of confidence.
Apparent differences may occur due to rounding.

· The Company is not aware of any information or data which would materially
affect this previously announced resource estimate, and all assumptions and
technical parameters relevant to the estimate remain unchanged.

 

The Board of Thor Energy Plc has approved this announcement and authorised its
release.

For further information, please contact:

 Thor Energy PLC
 Nicole Galloway Warland, Managing Director               Tel: +61 (8) 7324 1935

 Ray Ridge, CFO / Company Secretary                       Tel: +61 (8) 7324 1935
 WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)  Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666
 Antonio Bossi / Darshan Patel / Isaac Hooper
 SI Capital Limited (Joint Broker)                        Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413 500
 Nick Emerson
 Yellow Jersey (Financial PR)                             thor@yellowjerseypr.com
 Dom Barretto / Shivantha Thambirajah / Bessie Elliot     Tel: +44 (0) 20 3004 9512

Competent Person Statement

The information in this report that relates to Geological interpretation and
Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Nicole Galloway
Warland, who holds a BSc Applied geology (HONS) and who is a Member of The
Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Ms Galloway Warland is an employee of
Thor Energy PLC. She has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style
of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity
which she is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the
2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results,
Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Nicole Galloway Warland consents to the
inclusion in the report of the matters based on her information in the form
and context in which it appears.

 

About EnviroCopper Ltd

ECL was established in 2017 and is a copper ISR specialist focussed on its
Kapunda and Alford West ISR projects in South Australia (Figure 1).

ECL's experienced team is leading the way in copper ISR technology
development, collaborating with leading universities and research institutes
into successful outcomes of mining economics, environmental mitigations and
community acceptance of this extension to existing ISR technology.

Thor Energy is the largest shareholder with 26.3% equity interest, with
Alligator Energy in January 2024 investing A$0.9M for a 7.8% interest
(ASX/AIM: THR 24 January 2024).

For further information on EnviroCopper and to see an overview of its
projects, please visit the Company's website at
https://www.envirocopper.com.au/ (https://www.envirocopper.com.au/)

 

About Thor Energy Plc

The Company is predominantly focused on uranium and energy metals that are
crucial in the shift to a 'green' energy economy. Thor has several highly
prospective projects that give shareholders exposure to uranium, vanadium,
copper, tungsten, lithium, nickel and gold, located in the favourable mining
jurisdictions of Australia and the USA.

Thor holds 100% interest in three uranium and vanadium projects (Wedding Bell,
Radium Mountain and Vanadium King) in the Uravan Belt region of Colorado and
Utah, with historical high-grade uranium and vanadium drilling and production
results.

At Alford East in South Australia, Thor has earnt an 80% interest in oxide
copper deposits considered amenable to extraction via In-Situ Recovery
techniques (ISR). In January 2021, Thor announced an Inferred Mineral Resource
Estimate¹.

Thor also holds a 26.3% interest in a private Australian copper development
company EnviroCopper Limited (ECL), which Kapunda copper mine and the Alford
West copper project, both situated in South Australia, and both considered
amenable to recovery by way of ISR.²³

Thor holds 100% of the advanced Molyhil tungsten project, including measured,
indicated and inferred resources⁴, in the Northern Territory of Australia,
which was awarded Major Project Status by the Northern Territory government in
July 2020. Thor executed a A$8m Farm-in and Funding Agreement with
Investigator Resources Limited (ASX: IVR) to accelerate exploration at the
Molyhil Project on 24 November 2022.(5)

Thor owns 100% of the Ragged Range Project, comprising 92 km(2) of exploration
licences with highly encouraging early-stage gold and nickel results in the
Pilbara region of Western Australia.

For further information on Thor Energy and to see an overview of its projects,
please visit the Company's website at https://thorenergyplc.com/
(https://thorenergyplc.com/) .

 

Notes

(1)
https://thorenergyplc.com/investor-updates/maiden-copper-gold-mineral-resource-estimate-alford-east-copper-gold-isr-project/

(2)
www.thorenergyplc.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20172018/20180222-clarification-kapunda-copper-resource-estimate.pdf
(http://www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20172018/20180222-clarification-kapunda-copper-resource-estimate.pdf)

³
www.thorenergyplc.com/sites/thormining/media/aim-report/20190815-initial-copper-resource-estimate---moonta-project---rns---london-stock-exchange.pdf
(http://www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/aim-report/20190815-initial-copper-resource-estimate---moonta-project---rns---london-stock-exchange.pdf)

(4)
https://thorenergyplc.com/investor-updates/molyhil-project-mineral-resource-estimate-updated/

(5)https://thorenergyplc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/20221124-8M-Farm-in-Funding-Agreement.pdf
(https://thorenergyplc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/20221124-8M-Farm-in-Funding-Agreement.pdf)

 

The Company notes that for the relevant market announcements noted above, that
it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects this
information and that all material assumptions and technical parameters
underpinning any estimates continue to apply and have not materially changed.

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