Torian Resources NL is focused on exploration for commercially mineable resources of minerals and metals, and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange since 1982. Current projects include a joint venture in Madagascar which is focused on developing mining for gold and gemstones, diamond exploration and tin exploration in NSW, and gold exploration in Victoria.
The Madagascar Joint Venture with Varun Madagascar, a division of Mumbai-listed company Varun Industries, is a production sharing joint venture to mine both gold and gemstones from two highly prospective adjacent exploitation (production) licences in Madagascar. With respect to these particular temenents, the joint venture allows Torian a 35% share of profits from production upon earning this ongoing interest through the initial expenditure of 75% of the first US$3.4 million (being US$2.55 million), to be invested in the ground.
In NSW, the diamond deposits of the Copeton and Bingara regions of northern New South Wales were the Company’s first focus for gemstone exploration. Torian holds exploration licences and mining leases covering the only areas on the east coast of Australia where large commercial quantities of gem quality diamonds have been historically mined (over 300,000 carats of gem quality diamonds were mined from these areas at the beginning of the 19th century). The Company has recently commenced the production of a 3D digital terrain model of the Bingara tenements, which will allow the compilation of the extensive historical data and seek to delineate the extent and concentrations of diamond-bearing material.
In 2007, Torian lodged several exploration licence applications over or surrounding four of NSW’s most highly prospective tin bearing fields. Two of these ELs surround mining leases held over the state’s largest former tin mines, at Ardlethan and Gibsonvale. The Company secured the tenements on the basis that more large deposits were likely to be found in close proximity to the already identified and profitably mined world class tin deposits nearby. At that time, a prime incentive was that tin prices had reached above US$14,000 per tonne, and aside from price falls during 2008, have recently been well over US$30,000. The tenements are still held by the Company, and a drilling program is planned for the near future. The tin tenements are also the subject of joint venture discussions, with the intention being to continue exploration activities.
In 2006 the Company entered into a joint venture agreement to earn up to 75% by exploring and developing the Egerton-Gordon Goldfield, located 20 kilometres east of Ballarat, in Victoria. Exploration Targets totalling between 1.2 and 1.8 million tonnes of gold-bearing quartz with grades between 6 and 12 grams/tonne have been outlined by the Company below old workings of the Black Horse and the Egerton Mines, the two largest (and interconnected) former mines on these goldfields. A core drilling program was initiated in order to verify these historically reported high gold grades, and the company has plans to continue this program in the near future.