PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX- and Aim-listed junior Thor Mining has announced an initial inferred mineral resource of 230 000 t grading 2% copper for 4 600 t of copper at its Bonya copper mine, in the Northern Territory.

The Bonya deposit lies within the Bonya tenement, which is jointly held with ASX-listed Arafura Resources, and adjacent to the Molyhil tungsten and molybdenum mine.

Thor said on Monday that the small, but moderately high-grade copper resource at Bonya could act as a satellite deposit, with the ore to be treated at the proposed Molyhil process plant.

“Our primary incentive to acquire an interest in the Bonya exploration licence was, and still remains, the tungsten deposits in the licence area, therefore, this free copper resource could be considered a bonus,” said Thor executive chairperson Mick Billing.

“The Molyhil processing plant design is amenable to the treatment of copper ores of this nature, without modification, and we expect this material will flow through the plant with no additional investment required, other than mining and haulage.”

Billing said that this was likely the first of a series of satellite tungsten and copper deposits within economic trucking distance of the Molyhil project.

“In addition to the work on the copper deposits at Bonya, an external review of the vanadium deposits, also on the project license, is in progress, and we expect to provide investors with an update on this shortly.”

An upgraded definitive feasibility study on the Molyhil project estimated a capital cost of A$69-million, with a finance requirement of $43-million, while the project’s net present value has been estimated at A$101-million, with an internal rate of return of 59%.

The project, which will have a mine life of seven years, will consist of a simple opencut mine producing 125 000 t/y of ore, and recovering some 8 583 t of tungsten and 3 133 t of molybdenum over the life of the project.