Thor Mining Interview Transcript with Mick Billing, Chairman and CEO

Harry Norman:    Hello this is Harry Norman for Proactive Investors and welcome to another Proactive audio interview. Today is the 16th of March 2010 and I’m talking with Mick Billing, Chairman and CEO of Thor Mining.  Listed on the Aim Market, Mining Sector.  Stock ticker THR.  Share price 1.12 pence.  Market cap 2.62 million pounds sterling. Thor Mining is also listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.  Web address www.thormining.com. Mick thank you very much for joining us for this interview.
Mick Billing:  Harry it’s a pleasure, nice to talk to you.

On February 25th Thor Mining acquired a 51% interest in the Dundas Gold Project, which you’ve described as “A beauty in elephant country.”  What convinces you that this project is indeed a ‘beauty’?

Harry we particularly like the Dundas Project because amongst other things it’s one of the few remaining parts of Western Australia that has not been systematically explored for gold mineralisation, and yet it’s highly prospective for that.

The area has been part of a conservation reserve for the last fifteen years or so.  And in that time until very recently, mining and exploration activities were prohibited.  This prohibition has only recently been lifted; otherwise it would have been acquired and explored by others well before today, in our view.

The attraction of the location is very real.  Norseman’s close by,  and Norseman has steadily produced millions of ounces of gold for many decades.  And the placement of the project on the Albany-Fraser belt I think lends tremendous creditability.  It is an emerging province in Western Australia.

In the early 90s BHP held the tenement and did some geochemical work.  The assays from that are of a similar tenure to some discoveries elsewhere in the belt that have proved to be quite significant over time.

The Dundas Project is located on the Albany-Fraser belt which is an extension of the Norseman Wiluna greenstone belt.  What other companies have proved up prospects there Mick?

I guess the leader of the pack there is the plus five million ounce Tropicana Project owned by Anglogold Ashanti and the Independence Group up in the northern end of the Belt.  Moving south there’s a bunch of others.  There’s the Plumridge Project which is owned Tianshan Goldfields.  They have had some spectacular success and some very exciting results.  And as you head further south again there are a number of other discoveries from Sipa Resources, Anglogold Ashanti again, & Black Fire Minerals.

Right along this belt, over the last two or three years, there have been a number of discoveries, appearing quite regularly and for a belt that was considered non prospective ten years ago, it is now hot property.  We believe we’re very fortunate to have the ground indeed.

Are you looking at other possible acquisitions at this time?  And if so what sort of project are you interested in Mick?

Harry we are looking for more projects and the objective is for Thor to acquire at least one more exploration project, preferably at a little more advance staged than Dundas.  While we believe that Dundas is an outstanding project it is Greenfields and we think we should balance the portfolio by acquiring a project which has a few drill holes in it. 

In terms of commodities we also have a preference for the mainstream group of commodities and with the particular focus I guess on precious and base metals, for example gold, copper, nickel and the like.

What is the situation with your Molyhil Tungsten Molybdenum project Mick?

We’re not going to walk away from Molyhil.  We are still strong believers in it.  But the Board has acknowledged that development of Molyhil will require metal prices to return to something like they were a couple of years ago.

That recovery has commenced with Molybdenum now being about twice the price than this time last year.  But it’s still well short of the price of two years ago and we have some way to go.

Along the way we’ve been steadily fine tuning the capital and operating costs of the project.  We think we have achieved some genuine savings there and we believe we will be ready to take advantage of a sustained upswing in prices when that does happen.

Additionally a few weeks ago the London Metals Exchange commenced quoting international Molybdenum prices.  And we think that’s a very positive step for those of us who are in the Molybdenum industry.

Trevor Ireland recently joined the Board of Thor Mining.  Who is Trevor Ireland and what does he bring to the table?

Trevor’s a geologist of tremendous experience in gold exploration and assessment.  Trevor was Exploration Manager and an integral part of the discovery for North Flinders of the plus six million ounce Callie orebody in the Northern Territory and also The Granites orebody in the Northern Territory. 

Subsequently he did some very good  work for Normandy La Source in Europe and Africa.  We think we’re very lucky indeed to have him on the team.  He adds a level of professionalism amongst geologists that is very hard to match in our view.

What is Thor Mining’s financial situation going forward Mick?

Like all exploration companies Harry, Thor never has enough.  We will always need more cash and we will certainly be raising cash during the current calendar year to allow us to explore Dundas and also our other exploration projects in the Northern Territory.

At some stage also, we will have, we hope, reason to raise funds to develop Molyhil.  But that event will depend on timing and the level of metal prices.

What can we expect from Thor Mining over the next twelve months?

We are going to explore the Dundas Project fairly aggressively.  We’ve got a soil sampling programme starting in the next week or two and we will be scheduling drilling quite soon after that. 
We will also continue to explore our projects in the Northern Territory.  Recently we completed an airborne EM survey on our Harts Range base metal project and we’re waiting on the interpretation of the results of that.  Hopefully that will come back with some drilling targets for us to test later in the year.

I would also suggest that people keep an eye on Tungsten and Molybdenum prices.  We are strong believers in those commodities going forward and expect that the fundamentals for the Molyhil Project will favour development in the not too distant future.

What are your thoughts on the Molybdenum and Tungsten markets Mick?

Harry we’re positive about both those commodities, in the medium term.  As I said earlier Molybdenum is now quoted on the London Metals Exchange and I think that is a good thing.
The main usage for Molybdenum is in pipelines, including pipelines for oil and gas transport.  We have to believe that the demand  for this application in particular will increase as the world economic recovery continues.

On the Tungsten front I think the outlook again is positive.  Again due to the improvement in the global economy.  Tungsten is predominantly used as an abrasive and the industrial use of Tungsten has to continue to grow as the economic market improves around the world.

Are there still benefits to Thor Mining in continuing to be listed on both the ASX and the London Aim markets Mick?

I believe so Harry.  I have to say it is debated from time to time at the Board.  But the cycles for the markets in the U.K. and in Australia don’t always move in parallel and there are times when it’s easier to raise funds in one jurisdiction compared with the other. 

More particularly we’ve got a bunch of shareholders in Australia and a bunch of shareholders in the U.K. and we don’t think that it would be in their best interests to contract to just one exchange.

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