Officials for Thor, which is finalising specifications for its 10,000t sample from the silver-gold-lead-zinc-copper-indium deposit over which the project sits, said it retained the services of Canada-headquartered Allnorth Engineering to undertake the engineering of the bulk sample facility.

Masse Environmental Consultants, also based in British Columbia, was chosen to manage Thor's supporting environmental studies for the sample, including biology, groundwater, hydrogeology and other aspects.

Aero Geometrics was selected by Taranis to perform a LiDAR survey over the property in June and July. The work, the groups hope, will enhance the complex's existing topographic and aerial imagery.

The processing of the 10,000t of material will be the final phase of mine development before progressing to commercial mining of the high-grade resource. It will use a modular Inline Pressure Jig (IPJ) plant, but ongoing mining and milling activity will be easily achieved through the scaling up of the plant circuits and general mine plan.

"Growing the resource at Thor and transitioning the project into a commercial mining opportunity is key for Taranis," president and CEO John Gardiner said.

He added that it has already identified and confirmed the availability of several already permitted hydrometallurgical plants to process and test the sample's pre-concentrate product, which will complete the project plan.

"It is important for Taranis and the changing exploration business in general, to be able to complete the … sample in a safe and environmentally friendly method [and] the data collected in this phase of mining will form the foundation for the larger mining operations proposed at Thor," he said.