Tournigan tests Irish prospect

Vancouver — Junior Tournigan Gold (TVC-V) has launched a 5-hole drill program on the Glenlark prospect, part of the Tyrone project in Northern Ireland.

Glenlark is marked by stratabound gold-silver-zinc-lead mineralization, which has been subjected to geophysical and geochemical surveys, trenching and drilling. The junior is exploring trench T-10, which returned 3.8 grams gold and 22.8 grams silver per tonne plus 4.89% zinc and 0.75% lead over 9.5 metres, as well as the area surrounding another trench, 200 metres to the west, which yielded 16 grams gold over 3 metres.

Meanwhile, trenching on the nearby Curraghinalt gold deposit is under way. Situated 6 km southwest of the Glenlark prospect, Curraghinalt hosts a mesothermal gold-quartz vein system with an inferred resource of 468,097 tonnes grading 16.96 grams gold per tonne.

Gold mineralization at Curraghinalt is associated with high-grade mesothermal quartz-sulphide vein systems hosted in Dalradian metasediments. Farther north are numerous occurrences of quartz-sulphide-gold-vein mineralization with gold values ranging from 1 to 18.6 grams per tonne.

Tournigan acquired the project in November 2002 by inking a deal with Strongbow Resources (SR-V). Tournigan can acquire a 51% interest in the Curraghinalt project area by spending $2 million over three years, and a half-stake in the Tyrone project by spending $1.5 million over the same period.

Once vested, Strongbow can elect to retain the balance of its interest in the relevant project by funding its share of future work. If Strongbow decides not to participate, Tournigan can increase its interest in the Curraghinalt project to 60% by spending a further $2 million and to 75% by completing a feasibility study within seven years. By the same token, Tournigan can boost 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.

The company is also moving ahead with the share purchase agreement for the Kremnica gold deposit in the Slovak Republic.

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 data, is 1.1 million oz. gold and 9 million oz. silver.

The resource calculations were performed by Western Services Engineering. Based on a cutoff grade of 0.5 gram gold per tonne, the resource is pegged at 22.3 million tonnes grading 1.54 grams gold and 12.5 grams silver. The mineralization is in three zones: Sturec, Vratislav and Wolf. More than 85% of the gold is in the Sturec zone.