31 March 2017
THOR MINING PLC
Director Appointment and Option Awards
The Directors of Thor Mining PLC ("Thor" or the "Company") (AIM, ASX: THR) are pleased to announce that the Company has appointed Mr Alastair Middleton to the Board as a Non-executive Director with immediate effect.
Mr Mick Billing, Executive Chairman, commented: "We are pleased to announce the appointment of Alastair as a Non-executive Director of Thor. Alastair is a director of Metal Tiger PLC and we are pleased to further strengthen our ties with Metal Tiger.
"Alastair has an outstanding background in both technical and commercial aspects of the resources industry, and we are delighted to add his strengths to our team."
Award of director options
As part of the terms of his engagement, and subject to approval at the next General Meeting of shareholders, Mr Middleton and each of the existing directors of Thor, will be awarded options over 3 million ordinary shares of 0.01 pence each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares"), each with an exercise price of 1.75 pence, expiring 3 years from the date of this announcement.
Background
Alastair Middleton, aged 51, is a Director of Metal Tiger Plc, a company quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
Mr Middleton is a mining industry executive with more than 27 years of international experience, in both underground and open pit operations and brings with him considerable technical and financial knowledge. He transitioned to investment banking in 2008 and has since undertaken multiple technical and economic assessments on mining companies and projects, resulting in a substantial amount of funding. Alastair is a qualified geologist and has a Master of Science and Diploma in Mineral Exploration from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College.
He worked for four years as a geologist with Goldfields of South Africa in the early 1990s before joining Datamine International (UK) where he worked for 14 years, joining as a consultant and being promoted to General Manager and Principal Mining Consultant. During his tenure he developed geological models, created mine designs, optimised mining schedules and worked with a client base that included several major mining companies as well as junior mining companies.
In 2008 he joined Standard Bank as a Director and Technical Advisor where he had overall responsibility of technical approvals for all mining finance deals and worked on transactions involving project finance, corporate finance, off-takes, equipment finance, M&A, financial advisory and business recoveries.
Alastair James Middleton is, or has been, a director or partner of the following companies or partnerships during the previous five years:
Current |
Previous |
Metal Tiger Plc |
Furhome Limited |
Alastair Middleton does not currently hold any shares in the issued share capital of the Company.
Metal Tiger plc, a company of which Alastair Middleton is a director, currently holds an interest in 34,400,000 Thor Ordinary Shares, representing 9.24 per cent of the issued share capital of the Company.
Save as set out above there are no other disclosures in respect of the appointment of Alastair Middleton that fall to be made under Rule 17 or paragraph (g) of Schedule Two of the AIM Rules for Companies.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
Enquiries:
Mick Billing |
+61 (8) 7324 1935 |
Thor Mining PLC |
Executive Chairman |
Ray Ridge |
+61 (8) 7324 1935 |
Thor Mining PLC |
CFO/Company Secretary |
Colin Aaronson/ Daniel Bush/ Richard Tonthat |
+44 (0) 207 383 5100 |
Grant Thornton UK LLP |
Nominated Adviser |
Elliot Hance |
+44 (0) 207382 8300 |
Beaufort Securities Limited |
Joint Broker |
Nick Emerson / Andy Thacker |
+44 (0) 1483 413 500 |
SI Capital |
Joint Broker |
Tim Blythe/ Camilla Horsfall |
+44 (0) 207 138 3222 |
Blytheweigh |
Financial PR |
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 is a resources company quoted on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange and on ASX in Australia.
Thor holds 100% of the advanced Molyhil tungsten project in the Northern Territory of Australia, for which an updated feasibility study in 2015¹ suggested attractive returns. Thor also holds 100% of the Pilot Mountain tungsten project in Nevada USA which has a JORC 2012 Indicated Resources Estimate² on 1 of the 4 known deposits.
Notes
¹ Refer ASX and AIM announcement of 12 January 2015
² Refer ASX and AIM announcement of 10 June 2014
