(Alliance News) - Thor Mining PLC on Wednesday announced its plans for the further exploration and development of the Jervois vanadium project in Australia.
Shares in Thor were up 3.9% at 0.80 pence in morning trade.
Located in Australia's Northern Territory, Jervois is a joint venture between Thor and Arafura Resources Ltd.
Thor is the project manager and owns 40% stake, while Arafura owns the remaining 60%. Thor acquired its interest when it acquired Australian deposits from Rox Resources Ltd for AUD550,000 or GBP299,000.
Looking ahead, future efforts at Jervois will centre on resource drilling on the Casper, Coco, and RD deposits - RD was previously known as the Misty deposit. There will also be testing of other prospects for possible economic grades of titanium and vanadium and follow-up work intended to test for gold and platinum group elements at all Jervois prospects.
Once this testing has taken place, Thor will move to more metallurgical studies plus social impact and environmental assessments.
Overall, the goal of the joint venture will be to find investors who will help with Jervois' "resource development and subsequent feasibility and permitting activities".
There is a history of drilling at Jervois, including 60 holes drilled from 2006 to 2008 which found " extensive potentially economic grades of vanadium and titanium". Samples from just 14 of these holes were tested for platinum group elements and gold and found as much as 1.6 parts per million of combined gold, platinum, and palladium.
Further, testwork has concluded that the project could produce concentrates with grades between 1% and 2% vanadium oxide, in line with other mines, with 61% to 69% recoveries.
Thor Mining Executive Chair Mick Billing said: "We are excited to have an interest in the Jervois vanadium deposits at a time of stimulated global interest in vanadium."
"Thor acquired an interest in the Jervois vanadium deposits, at no additional cost, with the acquisition of the Bonya tungsten deposits. This has proved to be an unanticipated bonus to that acquisition."
"Vanadium metal has very a robust baseline demand in the construction industry, along with exciting prospects as a potential battery metal where large capacity storage is required."
Thor Energy (THR)