www.thormining.com.au
Thor Mining (ASX: THR, AIM: THR) is a minerals exploration and development company focused on gold and base metals exploration along with progressing towards development of a tungsten and molybdenum project in the Northern Territory of Australia. They have a portfolio of properties in the Northern Territory of Australia, and in Western Australia.
In January 2011, the company agreed terms to acquire up to an 80% interest in this project. Spring Hill hosts an Indicated Resource of 274,000oz gold within 3.64Mt @ 2.34 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
Thor Mining H1 pretax loss remains in line with 2008
Thor Mining (AIM, ASX: THR) said its half yearly pretax losses amounted to £534,000, which was about in line with a £500,000 loss in H1 2008 as the company reduced administrative expenses by more than 60% in response to lower molybdenum and tungsten prices.
Income for the six months to 31 December saw a 50% reduction in directors remuneration and a write down due to an impairment of exploration costs for the half year amounting to £209,000 and exchange differences of £1.04 million.
“While good progress had been made in reducing capital and operating costs for the project, international molybdenum prices reduced in line with pricing for other metals over the period. This pushed the development timetable back until product pricing is more conducive for the necessary capital raising,” said Executive Chairman of Thor Mining Mick Billing.
Back in November, Thor said it would scale back activities on the company’s flagship Molyhil project due to the continued weakness in international markets for molybdenum. At that time the price for molybdenum roasted concentrates, as published in “Metal Pages”, was US$11.80/lb compared with a published price of US$34.00/lb in September 2008.
After the end of the period, the company announced plans to place 16.7 million shares with Australian Investors to raise £140,000 before costs to research and assess opportunities to acquire additional projects focussing upon mainstream commodities.
Last month, Thor announced plans to acquire the Dundas gold project in the broader Norseman area south-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. This area has never been explored in detail and no drilling has been conducted within the boundaries of these tenements. Previously a limited, 40 sq km (square kilometres) surface geochemical program was conducted by BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT, ASX: BHP) revealed gold anomalies comparable with those associated with gold mineralisation elsewhere in the Wiluna-Kalgoorlie-Norseman greenstone belt.
The remaining 335 sq km of the Dundas Project remains unexplored.
