Tournigan grows Kuriskova deposit

VANCOUVER — After a modelling error forced Tournigan Energy (TVC-V, TVCFF-O) to reduce the resources at its Kuriskova uranium deposit in eastern Slovakia last year, the newly renamed company has put the project back on a track with a 10% boost to the contained metal in the high-grade Main zone.

The new resource estimate upgrades a significant portion of the deposit to the indicated category, and at a higher grade than previously estimated. Indicated resources now stand at 727,000 tonnes grading 0.413% U3O8 for 6.6 million contained pounds U3O8. Inferred resources quintuple the deposit, adding 5.8 million tonnes grading 0.247% U3O8 for another 31.4 million lbs. U3O8. Estimate calculations used a 0.3% uranium cutoff grade.

Kuriskova has a high-grade Main zone of stratabound uranium mineralization that is supplemented by a lower-grade stratabound zone of mineralization, both hosted in a sequence of andesitic volcanics. All of the indicated resource and most of the inferred resource is contained in the Main zone, which is home to 33.7 million contained pounds U3O8. The previous estimate pegged the Main zone’s contained U3O8 at 30.9 million lbs.

Kuriskova is part of a belt of largely stratabound uranium-molybdenum deposits hosted in a sequence of Permian-age metavolcanic/ sedimentary rocks. The deposit is blind, covered by thick soils and forest cover. It strikes northwest- southeast with a variable steep-to-moderate southwest dip. The mineralized zone starts some 120 metres below surface and extends to about 650 metres depth, with a 650-metre strike length and a width up to 3 metres.

News of the resource estimate left Tournigan’s share price unchanged at 74. The company has a 52-week trading range of 60-$4.10 and has 122.6 million shares issued.

Over at its Novoveska project, another uranium property in eastern Slovakia, Tournigan recently completed a 12-hole, 5,540-metre drill program designed to twin historical holes while also probing the zone’s eastern extension. The exploration attempt was successful: hole 4 cut 7.6 metres of 0.399% U3O8 from 494 metres depth in a 600- metre stepout from historical workings. And 175 metres farther east, hole 11 returned 0.158% U3O8 over 13.2 metres from 605 metres downhole, emphasizing the zone’s eastern expansion potential.

The program generally confirmed and in some cases improved on results from historical drilling, such as hole 13’s intercept of 38.7 metres grading 0.132% U3O8. A historical estimate for Novoveska pegged resources at 12 million tonnes averaging 0.075% U3O8 for roughly 20 million lbs. U3O8.

Until May, Tournigan was known as Tournigan Gold. Despite the name change, the company still has its hands in the gold game through its Curraghinalt gold deposit in northern Ireland.

A recent deep hole at Curraghinalt collared north of the main resource, part of a continuing program to test the zone’s downdip extension, intersected 16 mineralized veins, all roughly 1 metre wide. Seven of the mineralized intercepts graded at or above 9 grams gold per tonne. The two deepest intercepts returned the highest grades: 66.9 grams gold over a metre from 430 metres depth and 22.8 grams gold over a metre from 445 metres down-hole.

Tournigan acquired the advanced- stage gold project in early 2003. According to a 2007 estimate, Curraghinalt hosts 570,000 indicated tonnes grading 13.95 grams gold and 640,000 inferred tonnes grading 17.15 grams.