The Australian Government Ministry for Science, Jobs and Innovation has offered Environmental Copper Recovery SA (ECR) research funding of AU$2,851,303, over a 30-month period, for the Kapunda In-Situ Copper and Gold Recovery Trial.
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Kapunda Project location map |
ECR, along with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Adelaide University, will use the research funding to cover costs in respect of demonstration of an In-Situ Recovery (ISR) process. The ISR process is proposed for extraction of copper and potentially gold from the Kapunda deposit, with information gleaned from the ISR demonstration used for the potential development of multiple ISR amenable projects, several of which have been already been identified by the ECR team.
Mick Billing, Executive Chairman, commented that this was a significant boost for the Kapunda project which is being funded by Thor.
“This grant funding will provide for acceleration of field work and other technical, environmental and social studies for the project while maintaining the contributions by Thor Mining at sustainable levels,” said Mr Billing.
“This grant provides substantial funding to complete studies, including a comprehensive field recovery trial designed to establish the technical viability, scale, and overall efficiencies of the project to feasibility study level.
“Importantly, also, ECR will be well placed from this work to identify and assess many other projects for which ISR may be an economic solution.
“We are keen to be at the forefront of investigations into the potential of this technology and can see significant economic benefits when applied to appropriate deposit types.”
Work on Thor’s other key projects, the Molyhil DFS and the Pilot Mountain Scoping Study, continues with each close to conclusion.
Source: www.thormining.com