(MENAFN - ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Thor Mining (ASX: THR, AIM: THR) has received some encouraging nickel and copper indicators in early sampling work on Dundas gold project, which is located in one of Australia's hottest exploration post codes - the Albany-Fraser Province.
The results are from further analysis of surface geochemical sampling on just a small portion of the tenement holding.
Mick Billing, executive chairman, commented: "This is an encouraging start in assessing the nickel prospectivity of the Dundas project.
"A number of the results are clearly anomalous, and the spacing between the sample collection points is extremely broad. We will be following up with an infill program to determine the potential for nickel focussed drill targets."
The Dundas tenements lie on the general strike-extension of the most prolific gold-bearing belt of the Yilgarn Province " the Wiluna"Kalgoorlie-Norseman greenstone belt, in an area where the trend of the Albany-Fraser belt is displaced south-eastwards by about 50 kilometres.
The belt hosts the plus 6.4 million ounce AngloGold Ashanti (ASX: AGG) and Independence Group's (ASX: IGO) Tropicana gold deposit, and other closer discoveries.
Nickel Exploration
Further analysis of 195 wide spaced calcrete samples has now been completed across a 25 square kilometre area of exploration tenement, E63/1102 (THR 60%).
The geology of the area comprises Fraser Complex mafics and ultramafics which host significant recent nickel discoveries including Sirius Resources' (ASX: SIR) Nova discovery which about 80 kilometres north-northeast of Dundas, and historical nickel intercepts nearby at the Gnama South and Talbot prospects.
The selected area also includes a buffer zone to allow for irregularities in the interpreted formation contact which exists largely under several metres of sediment cover.
Results of the additional analyses indicate three areas of elevated nickel, one area of elevated copper and one area of coincident copper and nickel.
Analysis
Thor currently holds 60% equity in the Dundas project along with rights to increase that equity to 100% - with the project located in one of the hottest belts in Australia.
Any success from the infill sampling in early 2013 will provide a catalyst for a positive price re-rating for Thor, which not only has exposure to the Albany-Fraser - but also another two projects.
This includes the Spring Hill (Thor 51%) which hosts 450,000 gold ounces, and the company's Molyhill tungsten and molybdenum project in the Northern Territory, where following the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study earlier this year - Thor has been focused on negotiations to secure agreements for offtake and project finance.
With this highly prospective portfolio - Proactive Investors consider that Thor offers upside to 0.02 - 0.03.
