THoR Mining plc
the four years since the project was put on hold, the price of molybdenum and tungsten have risen once again to profitable levels. Thor had been constantly reviewing the mine and at the beginning of 2011, with tungsten becoming particularly valuable, it was decided that the time was right to begin work on bringing Molyhil online. “The first thing we needed to do was work on updating the feasibility studies and do a bit more drilling to increase the size of the resource,” explains Billing. “We have had some success with the drilling and expect a revised, definitive feasibility study to be published in a few weeks time. Hopefully, that will say that we should start mining quite soon.” Unlike at Spring Hill, all the environmental agreements and legal agreements were put in place before the decision was taken to postpone the Molyhil already in place. Consequently, once the feasibility study is completed, it will be able to commence mining as soon as sales and finance agreements are in place. “We did at one point think that, as the environmental report was done some time ago, we may have to carry out another report. However, the government of the Northern Territory has recently confirmed that it is still valid and our agreements with the traditional, Aboriginal owners of the land still stand as well.” The total estimated capital cost of bringing Molyhil into production is A$66 million, although Thor is hopeful that it will come in under budget. The company is also confident that it will recoup this expenditure fairly quickly once the resource comes online. “The original estimate of the deposit was 42
1.4m tonnes and that ore would be produced at a rate of 400,000 tonnes per year. Out of that, we would produce a couple of thousand tonnes per annum of tungsten concentrate and 1,200 – 1,300 tonnes of molybdenum concentrate,” says Billing. “Those numbers may not appear very high, but when they are put into perspective in terms of value: molybdenum is currently valued at approximately U$15/lb, or about four times the price of copper. Tungsten is running at about U$20/lb. When you look at these numbers, the financial viability of the mine becomes clear.” By the end of 2012, it hopes to be in the development stages of Molyhil and within the next three years both Molyhil and Spring Hill should be in production. “These two projects will be taking up most of our energy for the next few years, but we are always on the look out for new projects and by the middle of the decade I hope that we will have at least one additional project in production or development as well.” After a number of years having to hold back on its projects, Thor is now in position where it can invest and grow. The company has positioned itself as an invaluable link in the steel manufacture supply chain and with the construction sector also returning to growth, for Thor Mining the only way is up.