15 December 2022

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the UK version of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Thor Mining PLC

("Thor" or the "Company")

Kelly's Prospect

Drilling Results and a Correction to a Prior Result

Ragged Range, WA

The directors of Thor Mining Plc ("Thor") (AIM, ASX: THR, OTCQB: THORF) are pleased to provide drilling results from the Kelly's Prospect, Ragged Range, located in the Eastern Pilbara, Western Australia.

Project highlights:

§ Drilling has returned anomalous gold and copper values associated with felsic and dacitic porphyry intrusions into the Euro Basalt at the Kelly's Prospect, Ragged Range.

§ Best intercepts to date:

·    8m @ 1.31% Cu and 0.1g/t Au from 4m (22RRRC056), including

3m @ 2.9% Cu and 0.17g/t Au

·    1m @ 0.91 g/t Au from 40m (22RRRC049)

·    4m @ 0.1g/t Au, 0.3% Cu, 0.9% Pb, 0.2% Zn from 133m (22RRRC058)

§ QAQC Error: On 12 December 2022, the Bureau Veritas Kalgoorlie laboratory reported to Thor that the 12.2g/t Au sample from drillhole 22RRC052 as announced to the market (ASX/RNS: THR 4 November 2022) was an erroneous result based on the laboratory making a sample swap with an internal standard. The assay has subsequently reported <0.01g/t Au.

Photo 1: RC Chips from 22DDRC056 at Kelly's Ridge Prospect, Ragged Range

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

"Disappointingly, due to a testing error at the Bureau Veritas laboratory, the high-grade gold result announced in November was erroneous. Thor is undertaking an investigation into the laboratory error to ensure that the highest standard of procedure and reporting is provided going forward.

"These latest drill results are encouraging; however, further work is required to fully explain why the high-grade gold and copper in surface rock chips is not repeated in very shallow drill intersections."

The Ragged Range Project, located in the prospective Eastern Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, is 100% owned by Thor Mining (covering E46/1190, E46/1262, E46/1355, E46/1340 and E46/1393 - Figure 2 and Figure 3).

Figure 1: Location Plan.

Kelly's Prospect

This small reconnaissance program included six holes along Kelly's Ridge, two below the historic Kelly's copper workings and two at the Kelly's NE Prospect (Figure 2).

Drilling at Kelly's Ridge was designed to test below the high-grade rock chips, returning up to 15g/t Au and 535g/t Ag along the 1km silicified ridge at the contact between the Boobina Porphyry and Euro Basalt, as well as testing below and along strike of the historic drillhole (DDHK2¹) that intersected 1.5m @ 22.97g/t gold, located at the porphyry-basalt contact (Figure 3).  The recent drillholes appear to have stopped too short to fully test the targeted contact, with follow-up drilling proposed angled from the west to east.

The 4m @ 12.2g/t Au intercept from 192 to 196m in drillhole 22RRRC052 has been assayed in one-metre intervals and report 193 to 194m 0.15g/t Au with 1.6% Zn and 0.13% Pb and 194 to 195m reports 0.02g/t Au with 0.35% Zn (Figure 3). This type of zinc and lead metal association is to be expected in areas with high-grade gold results and observations of quartz sulphide material in these two metre intervals is very encouraging.

Beneath the historic Kelly's copper workings, copper was intercepted with anomalous gold and silver warranting further review.

At the Kelly's NE Prospect, high-grade gold (up to 7.2g/t Au) and copper (up to 13.6 % Cu) identified in rock chips (ASX/RNS: THR 7 December 2022) was tested by two drillholes, 22RRRC057 and 22RRC058. Wide intersections of low-grade copper were intersected in the first hole from shallow depth with moderate grade intercepts in the second hole both at surface and at depth. Surprisingly the tenor of gold with the copper is subdued, from assays received to date, compared to the surface rock chips.

Significant results received to date include (greater than 0.1% Cu and 0.1 g/t Au):

Kelly's Ridge

·        22RRRC049:            1m @ 0.91 g/t Au from 40m 

·        22RRRC052:            1m @ 0.15g/t Au and 1.6% Zn from 196m

Kelly's Mine

·        22RRRC056:            8m @ 1.31% Cu and 0.1g/t Au from 4m (22RRRC056), including

                                    3m @ 2.9% Cu, 0.17g/t Au and 39g/t Ag from 7m

Kelly's NE

·        22RRRC057:             4m @ 0.13% Cu from 20m

·        22RRRC058:            19m @ 0.15% Cu from 8m, including

                                    3m @ 0.24% Cu from 24m, and

                                             3m @ 0.29% Cu, 0.12g/t Au, 8.5g/t Ag, 1.1% Pb, and 0.25% Zn from 133m

(Refer to Table A for Collar information and Table B for Significant Results)

QAQC Error

On 12 December 2022, Bureau Veritas Kalgoorlie laboratory reported to Thor that the 4m composite sample 194m to 198m at 12.2g/t Au (final assay) from drillhole 22RRC052 and announced to market (ASX/RNS: THR 4 November 2022) was an erroneous result based on the laboratory making a sample swap with a standard (Figure 3). The information for this error, which was supplied by email from the Bureau Veritas Kalgoorlie Laboratory to Thor, is stated as:

"We found the cause of the elevated Au in this sample to be due to a sample swap with an internal standard from a second batch that was assayed in the same fire as the third batch of RRRC0052 containing RRRC003867. Unfortunately, due to human error at the QAQC stage this swap was not picked up during the initial assays resulting in the erroneous result being reported."

Based on the location down the hole of the intercept (contact between Euro Basalt and Porphyry), the position of the intercept relative to the historic drill intercept 1.52m @ 22.97g/t Au DDHK2 and the high-grade nature of the historic intercept, plus visible sulphide-rich quartz chips; there was no reason for Thor to question this assay result. 

Thor considers this is not an acceptable practice by the laboratory, for the original Au error but also the delay in reporting the error to Thor.

Bureau Veritas is re-assaying [the] full sample batch (relating to 22RRC049 to 22RRC052) to ensure accuracy and integrity of data. We anticipate these results in January 2023.

Next Steps

The following activities and results at Ragged Range are anticipated over the coming weeks:

1.               Review Kelly's rock-chip and drilling data

2.               Continue regional exploration, including reconnaissance sampling over ground in the northern portion of tenure for prospective lithium-caesium-tantalum enriched (LCT) pegmatites

Figure 2: Kelly's Prospect, highlighting drill collars and high-grade gold and copper in rock chips.

Figure 3: Kelly's Ridge cross section A-A', showing drill collars, historic drill intercept and high-grade rock chip-only a small portion of assay results received to date.

Figure 4: Kelly's Ridge cross section showing 22RRRC0051 and 22RRRC052.

Table A: Kelly's Prospect Drill Collar Information (MGA94 Z50)

Table B: Kelly's Prospect Significant Drill Intercepts

Notes:

NSI = no significant intercept,

Assays pending = assays still in process at the laboratory

Cu% = copper %

Au g/t = gold in grams per tonne

1ppm = 0.0001%

References:

1.            DDHk2, drilled by Hawkstone 1969, Open File Annual Report

This announcement is authorised for release to the market by the Board of Directors.

For further information, please contact:

THOR MINING PLC

Nicole Galloway Warland, Managing Director

+61 8 7324 1935

[email protected]

Competent Persons Report

The information in this report that relates to 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 Mining 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.

Updates on the Company's activities are regularly posted on Thor's website www.thormining.com, which includes a facility to register to receive these updates by email, and on the Company's twitter page @ThorMining.

About Thor Mining PLC

Thor Mining PLC (AIM, ASX: THR; OTCQB: THORF) is a diversified resource company quoted on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange, ASX in Australia and OTCQB Market in the United States.

The Company is advancing its diversified portfolio of precious, base, energy and strategic metal projects across USA and Australia. Its focus is on progressing its copper, gold, uranium and vanadium projects, while seeking investment/JV opportunities to develop its tungsten assets.

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.

At Alford East in South Australia, Thor is earning an 80% interest in copper deposits considered amenable to extraction via In Situ Recovery techniques (ISR). In January 2021, Thor announced an Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 177,000 tonnes contained copper & 71,000 oz gold¹.

Thor also holds a 30% interest in Australian copper development company EnviroCopper Limited, which in turn holds rights to earn up to a 75% interest in the mineral rights and claims over the resource on the portion of the historic 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% interest in two private companies with mineral claims in the US states of Colorado and Utah with historical high-grade uranium and vanadium drilling and production results.

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 $8m Farm-in and Funding Agreement with Investigator Resources Limited (ASX: IVR) to accelerate exploration at the Molyhil Project on 24^th November 2022.⁶

Adjacent to Molyhil, at Bonya, Thor holds a 40% interest in deposits of tungsten, copper, and vanadium, including Inferred resource estimates for the Bonya copper deposit, and the White Violet and Samarkand tungsten deposits.⁵  Thor's interest in the Bonya tenement EL29701 is planned to be divested as part of the Farm-in and Funding agreement with Investigator Resources Limited.⁶

Notes

¹ www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20210127-maiden-copper.gold-estimate-alford-east-sa.pdf

² www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20172018/20180222-clarification-kapunda-copper-resource-estimate.pdf  

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

 ⁴ www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20210408-molyhil-mineral-resource-estimate-updated.pdf  

⁵ www.thormining.com/sites/thormining/media/pdf/asx-announcements/20200129-mineral-resource-estimates---bonya-tungsten--copper.pdf  

⁶ https://thormining.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/20221124-8M-Farm-in-Funding-Agreement.pdf

1   JORC Code, 2012 Edition - Table 1

1.1         Section 1 Sampling Techniques and Data

1.1        Section 2 Reporting of Exploration Results