Australian mining group Thor Mining has embarked on an expanded exploration and acquisition strategy with a proposed deal to buy the Dundas gold exploration project in the broader Norseman area south-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The move follows a decision by Thor to broaden its focus into Western Australia with an emphasis on new mainstream commodity opportunities in addition to its historic portfolio of projects in the Northern Territory. A number of potential other acquisitions, focussing primarily on gold, are also under review.

Thor's new exploration strategy has been put in place to in order to fend off the effects of global demand, depressed forward prices and the strength of the Australian dollar on the near term commercial development of its Molyhil tungsten and molybdenum project in the Northern Territory.

The Dundas gold project includes three tenements covering 340 sq km in the Western Australian Goldfields comprising exploration licences E63/872, E63/1101, and E63/1102. Previous exploration by BHP over just 40 sq km of the project revealed gold anomalies comparable with those associated with gold mineralisation elsewhere in the belt.

Under the terms of the deal, Thor will initially acquire a 51 % interest in the tenements for A$100,000 and take up the remaining stake in stages dependent on exploration spend.

Thor's chairman, Mick Billing, said: "While our Molyhil tungsten/molybdenum project in the NT is on hold due to depressed metal prices, we have adopted an invigorated growth strategy based on mainstream commodities in proven mineral provinces to explore for very large gold deposits."