Tournigan Gold closes $1.25 million financing

Vancouver —Tournigan Gold (TVC-V) has closed the $1.25 million brokered short form financing that it announced on March 4. Proceeds will be used to develop the company’s gold projects in Northern Ireland and El Salvador.

The company placed 5 million units at $0.25 for a gross proceeds of $1.25 million. Each unit consists of one common share and one transferable share purchase warrant. Two share purchase warrants can be exercised to purchase one common share at $0.40 for a period of one year. As of January the junior had 15.7 million shares fully diluted.

Tournagin recently began rehabilitating the underground workings at the Curraghinalt property in Northern Ireland. The property hosts the Curraghinalt gold deposit which represents a mesothermal gold quartz vein system that has an inferred resource of 468,097 tonnes averaging16.96 grams gold per tonne, or 230,000 contained ounces. Tournigan believes that this resource can be brought into production in the short term and can be substantially increased with further drilling.

The Curraghinalt project is situated on a small part of the Tyrone licenses that are just northeast of the town of Omagh. The two projects cover a total area of 346 sq. km. Previous exploration included 2,800 metres of trenching, 17,800 metres of drilling and 700 metres of underground development.

Gold mineralization at Curraghinalt is associated with high-grade mesothermal quartz-sulphide vein systems hosted in Dalradian metasediments. Tournagin reports that further to the north there are numerous occurrences of quartz-sulphide-gold vein mineralization that have gold values that range from 1-to-18.6 grams gold per tonne.

Another target on the Tyrone license is the Glenlark prospect. Here, induced polarization geophysics, soil geochemistry, trenching, and limited drilling have defined stratabound gold-silver-lead-zinc mineralization. Tournigan has committed to a minimum of 1,000 metres of drilling at Glenlark.

Tournigan also applied for and additional four exploration licenses totalling 814 sq. km to the north and west of the Strongbow licenses in Northern Ireland, as well as 620 sq. km of prospecting licenses in the Republic of Ireland. Most of the ground covered by the new licenses is underlain by the favourable Dalradian stratigraphy.

Last November, Tournigan inked a deal with Strongbow Resources (SR-V) to option the Curraghinalt and Tyrone gold projects. According to the agreements, Tournigan can acquire a 51% interest in the Curraghinalt project area by spending $2.0 million over three years and can acquire a 50% interest in the Tyrone project by spending $1.5 million over three years.

Once vested, Strongbow may elect to retain the balance of its interest in the relevant project by funding its share of future programs. If Strongbow decides not to participate, Tournigan may increase its interest in the Curraghinalt project to 60% by incurring a further $2.0 million and to 75% by completing a feasibility study within seven years.

By the same token, Tournigan can increase its interest in the Tyrone project to 60% by incurring an additional $1,5 million, and to 75% by completing a feasibility study within seven years. Tournigan can acquire the remaining 25% interest in both projects by issuing shares at a deemed price equal to the net present value of each project at that time.

Meanwhile, Tournigan has begun due diligence on the Kremnica gold project in Slovakia. Kremnica is a large open-pit gold resource that the junior believes hosts excellent exploration potential.

In March this year, Tournigan signed a letter of intent with Australian-listed Argosy Minerals to purchase Kremnica Gold, Argosy’s wholly owned subsidiary. The Kremnica gold project, holds a 12.5 sq. km mining license that provides title to the Kremnica mine and strike extensions of the deposit that were drilled and evaluated by Argosy between 1995 and 1998.

The agreement allows Tournigan a 90 day due diligence investigation that may be followed by a lump sum cash payment. The purchase price will remain confidential until the deal is closed.

Mineralization at Kremnica consists of unmined veins, quartz stockworks and hydrothermal breccias, in addition to the low grade collapse material. The total in-situ resource based on previous mine data as well as Argosy’s additional 79 holes, or 12,300 metres of drilling, was 1.1 million ounces of gold and 9.0 million ounces of silver.

The resource calculations were performed by independent consultants, Western Services Engineering. Using a cut-off grade of 0.5 gram gold per tonne the resource was pegged at 22.3 million tonnes averaging 1.54 grams gold and 12.5 grams silver. Mineralization is found in three zones: Sturec, Vratislav and Wolf, with Sturec containing 85% of the total gold.

At Tournigan’s El Salvador properties satellite and aerial photo interpretation is currently underway.

Tournigan inked a deal with Brett Resources (BRN-V) last September for an option to acquire interests in two gold properties in El Salvador, El Potosi and Cerro Pedernal.

The junior can acquire a 100% interest in the El Potosi mining concession by making payments totalling US$1.45 million to Brett over four years. Tournigan can delay the fourth year payment of US$1.25 million by up to 1 year by making an additional US$150,000 payment to Brett. Brett retains a 1% net smelter royalty on production in excess of 200,000 ounces.

The 48 sq. km El Potosi concession is situated about 90 km east of the capital city of San Salvador. The property is centered on the historic workings the El Potosi high-grade gold mine where past production is estimated at 60,000 oz, gold. Grades ranged from 18-to-30 grams per ton over widths of 1 to 3 metres.

Tournigan believes that the El Potosi project has the potential to host more high-grade gold-silver vein mineralization that could be mined by low-cost underground methods.

Tournigan can earn a 60% interest in the Cerro Pedernal concession by spending a minimum of US$500,000 on the project over a 4-year period.

The 50 sq. km Cerro Pedernal project is situated about 60 km north of San Salvador. The property covers extensive Tertiary-aged volcanic and sedimentary rocks that host high-level, low-sulphidation epithermal silicification and alteration.

Tournigan believes that the property has the potential to host a large bulk-minable gold deposit similar to Glamis Gold’s (GLG-T) Cerro Blanco gold deposit located about 40 km to the west in Guatemala.