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
(MT)
|
CU
(%)
|
CU
(METAL T)
|
AU
(g/t)
|
AU
(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
Ray Ridge, CFO / Company
Secretary
|
Tel: +61 (8) 7324 1935
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/
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 km2 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/.
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
³
www.thorenergyplc.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/
5https://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.