Torian on the fast track in Leonora gold field with $1.2m cash injection

Special Report: Torian has bolstered its coffers to $3m from a placement that was done at very close to market price and prompted a key investor to up its stake.

Torian Resources (ASX:TNR) has raised $1.2m via the placement of 40 million shares at 3c apiece to strategic investors, which included fellow explorer Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA).

Nova cornerstoned the placement with a $200,000 contribution that will see its stake in Torian rise to over 13 per cent.

“Since coming on board in March of this year, we have enjoyed a productive and fruitful relationship with the team at Nova,” executive director Peretz Schapiro said.

“We welcome their increased investment as a show of faith in our projects and strategy.”

Torian’s directors and management are also upping their “skin in the game”, with executive chairman Paul Summers and Schapiro, along with CFO Michael Melamed, chipping in $250,000 on the same terms as the placement.

Investors welcomed the news on Friday, pushing shares up nearly 10 per cent to an intra-day peak of 3.4c.

Torian Resources (ASX:TNR) share price chart:

The fresh cash injection means Torian is now well funded to further accelerate its hunt for the next big gold mine in a highly prolific WA goldfield with a second drill rig to be mobilised to its Mt Stirling gold project in Western Australia.

“Our geologists have been very encouraged by the mineralisation that they have encountered throughout the drilling program to date, and as such we have taken the decision to raise these funds to help accelerate our drilling program by bringing a second drill rig to site,” Schapiro said.

“With thousands of metres of assay results expected to be rolling in over the coming weeks and months, having a second rig on site plus the extra cash, gives us the flexibility to capitalise on positive drill results by deploying this rig to different areas of the project where needed.”

Torian recently started a large 15,000m drilling campaign at Mt Stirling, which is in the same region as a number of advanced gold projects and producing mines.

The project sits in the Leonora gold district in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, which is host to St Barbara’s (ASX:SBM) 4.8 million oz Gwalia mine and Saracen Mineral Holdings’ (ASX:SAR) 3.8 million oz Thunderbox mine.

The region, which has a long history of gold mining, has produced about 14 million oz of gold from mines such as Tower Hills, Sons of Gwalia, Thunderbox, Harbour Lights and Gwalia.

The Mt Stirling project is located south of Saracen’s Thunderbox, which is a key mine in the soon-to-be-merged Northern Star/Saracen Yandal production hub.

Torian’s landholding also borders Red 5’s (ASX:RED) King of the Hills (KOTH) gold project, a former Sons of Gwalia asset near Leonora, which is closing in on production following the release of a final feasibility study in September.

KOTH previously produced 1 million oz of gold and is estimated to host a further 4.1 million oz in resources and 2.4 million oz in reserves.

A regional map of the Mt Stirling gold project tenements. Pic: Supplied

Drilling blitz advancing rapidly

Torian has so far completed 1303m of reverse circulation drilling across nine holes at the Diorite North prospect.

Drilling is following up encouraging high-grade rock chip samples of up to 21 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 2.1g/t silver at the Unexpected Mine and gold-in-soils samples of up to 5.52g/t near the historic Kiora and Meteor mines.

Anything over 5g/t is generally considered high-grade, but at the current high gold price even grades of as low as 1-2g/t can be economic.

Phase one drilling completed on the Stirling Block earlier this year demonstrated that the project is emerging as a potentially large gold system, with results confirming that mineralisation continues more than 100m below previous drilling and extends over 1km in strike length.

Previous drilling delivered high-grade hits of 4m at 8.84g/t, including 1m at 33.1g/t, and 2m at 48g/t.

Earlier drilling at the Diorite East prospect, where Torian has identified four highly prospective targets, hit mineralisation in every hole and returned encouraging indicators that could point to decent gold grades.

Results from that drilling are due shortly.

Torian now plans to undertake a further 5475m of reverse circulation drilling across 31 holes to test the depth and strike of the current 33,900oz JORC-compliant resource already defined at Mt Stirling.

“The next phase of our drilling campaign moves to the Mt Stirling block, host of the campaign’s primary focus,” Schapiro said.

“Our aim is to expand the size of our two resources on the Stirling Block (Mt Stirling and Stirling Well).

“With almost 13 million oz in resources located within the immediate neighbourhood of our Mt Stirling gold project including Red 5’s King of the Hills mine, St Barbara’s Gwalia mine and Saracen’s Thunderbox mine, we are confident that this region is a great location to be pursuing new major discoveries.”

Low-risk opportunities

Shapiro said the additional funds raised would also allow Torian to consolidate its landholding at the Mt Stirling project and look for further low-risk opportunities to take advantage of the highly prospective ground in the area.

In October, Torian struck a deal to expand its Diorite Block. It secured an option to acquire four tenements surrounding the block that also includes one already granted mining lease.

The new tenements contain historical high‐grade historical production of up to 563.01g/t at the Little Wonder mine and 201.55g/t at the Kenelworth mine.

The new tenements, which will be included in the current drilling program, are located within 2km to the south of the historic Diorite King mine.

Torian has also beefed up its expertise with the appointment of Claudio Sheriff as senior geologist and exploration manager.

Sheriff has 15+ years of exploration and mining experience and is extremely familiar with the Eastern Goldfields having worked across multiple projects in the region, most recently for the past two years at Round Oak Minerals’ Jaguar project, northwest of Leonora.

This article was developed in collaboration with Torian Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.