Tournigan adds Arizona Strip claims to uranium portfolio

Vancouver — While drilling continues at the advanced Jahodna uranium project in Slovakia, Tournigan Gold (TVC-V) has picked up 413 claims covering 33 sq. km of ground in the historic Arizona Strip uranium district of Arizona. The land package is viewed as the highest priority project in the company’s U.S. uranium portfolio, which also includes various properties in Wyoming and South Dakota, and totals about 104 sq. km.

Tournigan acquired its first U.S. uranium projects a year ago, to add to previously acquired uranium projects in Slovakia, including Jahodna. The company’s other advanced assets are the Kremnica gold project in Slovakia, and the Curraghinalt gold project in Northern Ireland.

The newly acquired Arizona Strip claims cover known or potential uranium mineralization hosted in collapse breccia pipes, which typically host higher-than-average grades, relative to other uranium deposits in the United States. Tournigan believes the claims may represent the largest holding of breccia pipes in the Arizona Strip district in the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona.

Collapse breccia pipe-hosted uranium deposits represent a fairly new style of uranium mineralization discovered in the 1980s, near the end of the last uranium exploration cycle. The breccia pipes form during downward collapse of overlying strata into underlying cavernous solution cavities resulting from groundwater dissolution of limestone layers.

The Arizona Strip district has a limited history of production during that period, when more than 19 million lbs. U3O8 was produced from seven mines with an average grade of 0.66% U3O8. Ore from the small-tonnage, high-grade underground mines was shipped directly to the White Mesa mill in Utah. Because of the region’s short exploration and mining cycle, which resulted in production from only seven of several hundreds of potential breccia pipe targets, Tournigan views the exploration potential of the district as “extensive and robust.”

Work by previous operators is reported to have identified 79 collapse structure targets, with at least 17 of these described as “true collapse breccia pipes.” Three of the pipes were previously explored by Western Nuclear in the early 1980s, and are near other uranium deposits discovered and mined by Western Nuclear during the same period.

Work programs to evaluate the breccia pipe targets are under way, and include rock-chip and soil geochemistry surveys, with particular attention paid to copper-zinc-lead values. Uranium mineralization in the district typically includes silver and copper-zinc-lead sulphide mineralization within sub-horizontal to horizontal-oriented tabular deposits in specific breccia horizons of the mineralized pipes.

Once this first phase of sampling is complete, ground geophysical surveys and test drilling are planned to further test the targets.

Tournigan also holds a large land package encompassing 243 claims (19.7 sq. km) within the Shirley basin, Great Divide basin, and Green River basin uranium districts of Wyoming. Five of the six claim groups host drill-documented uranium mineralization, including two with historic resource estimates. A number of mines operated in Wyoming during the previous exploration and development boom of the 1960s through 1980s, with historic production estimated at 193 million lbs. uranium oxide. Uranium mineralization within these deposits is typically hosted in lower Eocene, fluvial sandstone-hosted deposits. Past production was mostly from open pits, but also include underground and in situ leaching operations.

Tournigan has two rigs active at its most advanced project, the wholly owned Jahodna licence in eastern Slovakia. A 5,000-metre drilling program is under way there, targeting potential uranium-molybdenum mineralization both within and outside of the existing resource.

An independent preliminary assessment of the project by ACA Howe International has shown potential for an economically robust project, without taking into account moly byproduct revenue, even at a conservative production rate.

The current drill program includes infill drilling to upgrade the project’s inferred resource of 18.2 million lbs. uranium oxide at a grade of 0.656% from 1.25 million tonnes. This phase of drilling is expected to be complete by mid-August.