8 March 2019
THOR MINING PLC
Copper Project Q & A - March 2019
The Board of Thor Mining Plc ("Thor" or the "Company") (Aim, ASX: THR) is pleased to release the following Q&A document which reflects some of the questions received from shareholders following the Company's recent announcements.
Q What impact does the establishment and listing of EnviroCopper Limited have for the cash and funding requirements of Thor Mining?
A The original cash commitment to be made by Thor for the Kapunda project was A$1.8 million over three years of which the Company has expended A$0.45 million to date.
The terms for the Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") for the establishment of EnviroCopper provide a total Thor funding requirement (including the A$0.45 million spent) of A$0.6 million to secure 25% of EnviroCopper, and a further A$0.4 million to increase that equity to 30%.
The Company's cash commitments in respect of Kapunda have therefore reduced significantly, despite now having exposure to a significantly larger copper play.
Q What will the asset base of EnviroCopper look like, assuming this goes forward?
A EnviroCopper would initially have two exciting Insitu Recovery ("ISR") copper projects in South Australia.
· Kapunda with 119,000 tonnes of contained copper metal within an existing ISR amenable JORC compliant inferred resource and funded through feasibility via Australian Government CRCP grant funding (A$2.85 million); plus
· Moonta with sufficient potential scale to become a medium size long term copper producer and an ISR amenable exploration target of between 428,000 and 728,000 tonnes of contained copper.
More projects will potentially emerge, however that is for the future. But the potential scalability of this ISR business model should not be underestimated.
Q Copper production using ISR technology is not common. Are there other examples?
A Excelsior Mining (https://excelsiormining.com/), with a market capitalisation of C$250 million, have the Gunnison project in Arizona USA as principle asset. The project is under construction, fully financed, with the first production scheduled for the fourth quarter of this calendar year.
For further information about ISR Technology, investors should access the EnviroCopper website www.envirocopper.com.au .
Q This is relatively significant exposure to copper. What are your views on the copper market in the medium term?
A This is significant exposure to the global copper market for Thor, but at very low entry cost for the Company and its shareholders.
The global copper market is very large, around 23 million tonnes annually. Those who comment with authority all seem to be saying that the market is now growing at a very rapid rate, driven by electric vehicles (which use two to three times as much copper as internal combustion vehicles), and improved living standards across the globe as more and more people in communities, previously acknowledged as third world, achieve capacity to acquire and run the types of electric appliances and infrastructure, which all use copper, and which most of us take for granted.
Undeniably investors are searching for high value scalable copper opportunities and the Company believes the shareholders of Thor have one through its interest in EnviroCopper.
Q Now the elephant in the room. Can you provide an update on finance and off-take discussions for Molyhil?
A It would be easier for shareholders if we could provide more detailed updates on progress. However, the nature of these discussions are such that the Company has signed confidentiality agreements and as a result there is little we are allowed to say.
Our quietness publicly should not be confused with a lack of progress, quite the contrary.
As announced last November, Thor has appointed Argent Partners Limited as corporate advisors to assist with completion of off-take and financing arrangements for Molyhil. Together with them, Thor is engaging with a number of parties who have expressed interest on four main fronts:
· Joint Venture
· Tungsten off-take, preferably with finance attached
· Molybdenum off-take, preferably with finance attached
· Standard project level debt arrangements.
The eventual outcome may be a mix of several of the above, and Thor and its corporate advisors continue to work very hard to achieve the best possible outcome for the Company and its shareholders.
It is however the case that the first shareholders will hear about real progress is when a transaction is announced by a formal regulatory announcement. Indeed, there may be multiple announcements depending on the type of deal structure the Company adopts.
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/ Richard Tonthat/ Ben Roberts |
+44 (0) 207 383 5100 |
Grant Thornton UK LLP |
Nominated Adviser |
Nick Emerson |
+44 (0) 1483 413 500 |
SI Capital Ltd |
Joint Broker |
David Hignell |
+44 (0)20 3470 0470 |
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP |
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.
