(Sharecast News) - Thor Energy announced on Monday that its 30%-owned subsidiary EnviroCopper (ECL) has completed an ambient noise tomography (ANT) survey at the Alford West Project in South Australia, with successful results.

The AIM-traded firm said the survey, which used 'Exosphere by Fleet' technology, was able to delineate weathered "trough-like" structures that host oxide copper-gold mineralisation within the Alford Copper Belt.

According to Thor, the subsurface ANT results would be combined with historical drilling data to develop a new drilling programme that would target higher-grade oxide copper-gold mineralisation.

The focus would be on areas with low-density contrast, which had been shown to host oxidised copper mineralisation, potentially allowing for in-situ copper recovery.

Thor said the survey was partially funded by the South Australian government's Accelerated Discovery Grant (ADI), with ECL receiving up to AUD 0.03m (£0.02m) in funding.

"This low-impact ANT survey was extremely successful in subsurface mapping, in particular delineating the weathered 'trough' structures which host the oxide copper-gold mineralisation within the Alford Copper Belt - with further processing and modelling, it will potentially highlight the higher-grade mineralised zones within these structures," said managing director Nicole Galloway Warland.

"The use of the ExoSphere by Fleet has enabled ECL to be more efficient in exploration, minimising the environmental impact and improving drilling targeting.

"We look forward to updating the market as the subsurface maps are further refined with drill targets."

At 1100 BST, shares in Thor Energy were up 9.09% at 0.3p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.