Thor Mining PLC (LON:THR) (ASX:THR) said it has recently begun talks with potential investors about a second of its projects and it also expects an initial resource estimate from the Bonya prospect in Australia before the end of the year.
In its latest quarterly review, Thor's executive chairman Mick Billing said management have started “cutting non-essential project and corporate expenditure in order to conserve cash resources” while it continued to carry out talks with investors about its core Molyhil project and now also with US investors about the Pilot Mountain project in Nevada.
READ: Thor Mining raises £510,000 to advance Molyhil and Bonya projects
Earlier this month the company raised gross proceeds of £510,000 through a placing and subscription by directors.
This came on the back of challenging market conditions for tungsten this year, though the price of the metal has improved by more than 25% since early September as a potential market overhang was removed in China.
Billing said the board remained confident in the quality of the Molyhil project and that the resource upgrades and exploration drilling at 40%-owned Bonya will add to its value.
“We look forward to the initial resource estimates at Bonya which we expect late in the current quarter. We believe this will significantly improve the production profile and economics of the Molyhil project, and also increase the overall attractiveness of the project to strategic investors and offtake partners.”
Thor’s 30%-owned copper in-situ investment, EnviroCopper, is focused on the Kapunda deposit in South Australia, where it has an agreement to earn up to 75% of the rights over metals which may be recovered via in-situ recovery.
Works have now advanced to initial drill and pump flow test program stage, which Billing expects to begin shortly.
At Molyhil during the quarter also, assays results from a large diameter diamond drill hole saw 5 metres (m) at 1.74% tungsten trioxide, including 2m at 0.81% molybdenum from 78m; and 7m at 1.58% tungsten trioxide from 88m, including 4m at 0.44% molybdenum from 88m.
Thor shares were up 8% to 0.24p early on Thursday morning.