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Kremnica Gold Project

Tournigan Signs Option Agreement on Kremnica Gold Property

On June 8, 2009, Tournigan Energy Ltd. announced that it has signed a definitive option agreement with Ortac Resources plc of London, England, whereby Ortac may acquire in four stages up to a 100% interest in Tournigan's Kremnica Gold project in Slovakia, a non-core asset of Tournigan. Tournigan's focus is now solely on the development of its prospective uranium properties in Slovakia, notably the Kuriskova uranium project. For details of the option agreement, click here for the June 8, 2009 news release.

Kremnica Gold Project - Slovak Republic

The Kremnica gold project is located in central Slovakia beside the historic mining town Kremnica, which lies 185 km northeast from Bratislava, the nation's capital. The property has easy access to electricity, natural gas, rail and paved-road infrastructure. Historical production of 1.5 million ounces of gold on the property dates back to the 14th century.

The Kremnica resource is within a deposit known as "Šturec" which, in modern times, was an open pit mine from 1987 to 1992. The mine was abandoned as unprofitable in 1992, a time when the price of gold was trading in the range of US$330 per ounce to $360 per ounce. Tournigan acquired the mine and surrounding exploration licenses spanning 123 km² in 2003 and has since conducted a detailed exploration program on the property in addition to a pre-feasibility study completed in May 2007 (see below).

Tournigan continued in 2008 to infill drill the deposit and gather geotechnical information about the property. The geotechnical drilling was in support of a groundwater monitoring program, a detailed open pit design and the siting of the tailings facility and the processing plant. The company has also commenced base line data gathering for environmental purposes.

The complete technical report in support of the prefeasibility study completed by Beacon Hill Consultants (1988) Ltd. of Vancouver is available from this link: 43-101 Kremnica Technical Report (PDF, 10 mb). The study's mineral resource estimate is as follows:

Kremnica, Sturec Deposit - Measured, Indicated & Inferred Resource
(Beacon Hill Consultants, May 2007)

Category

Tonnes

Au / Ag

Ounces Au

Ounces Ag

Measured

8.2 million

1.61 Au / 13.3 Ag

425,000

3.5 million

Indicated

15.4 million

1.24 Au / 10.3 Ag

615,000

5.1 million

Inferred

10.6 million

1.01 Au / 6.27 Ag

345,000

2.1 million

(0.50 g/t AuEq cut-off)     


The study's base case indicates that the project could recover 674,500 ounces of gold with an internal after tax rate of return (IRR) of approximately 13%, assuming a gold price of US$525 per ounce and a silver price of US$9.25 per ounce. The prefeasiblity study also indicated an IRR of 26% assuming a gold price of US$675 per ounce. The current spot price of gold is available at this link: www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html. Tournigan is progressing with its efforts to optimize the project's economics.

Kremnica Gold Project prefeasiblity study summary (Beacon Hill, May 2007)

Gold Recovered (life of mine)

674,500 ounces

Silver Recovered (life of mine)

3,739,000 ounces

Gold Price Used

US$525/oz

Silver Price Used

US$9.25/oz

Capital Cost (millions)

US$106.2

Ongoing Capital and Reclamation (millions)

US$24.2

Operating Cost per Gold Equivalent Ounce

US$227.00

Production Rate (tonnes milled per day)

6,000

Strip Ratio (Ore to Waste)

1.61

Metallurgical Recovery (Gold)

93.0%

Metallurgical Recovery (Silver)

66.0%

Mine Life

7.7 years

Approximate Payback Period

4.4 years

Gold Price
(US$ per ounce)

Cashflow (After Tax)
(US$ millions)

IRR

$375

($12,617)

-2.55%

$425

$17,198

3.29%

$475

$46,802

8.53%

$525 (Base Case)

$75,028

13.08%

$575

$101,895

17.07%

$625

$128,762

20.79%

$675

$169,063

26.00%



Tournigan Licences, Central Slovakia

{Click to Enlarge}



District Scale Potential at Kremnica

Kremnica has produced over 1.5 million ounces of gold, essentially from one vein system. This epithermal vein represents only a small fraction of an area of at least 120 square kilometers of Tertiary-age volcanic rocks. These rocks exhibit alteration and geochemical anomalies indicating the possibility of additional significant mineralization. Although there has been some reconnaissance exploration in the surrounding prospective ground, most exploration has focused on the footprint of the historic mining. Tournigan believes that there is the potential to discover one or more additional mineralized systems similar to Kremnica in the adjacent ground within Tournigan's exploration licences, to the south of the historic resource.

Tournigan staff is compiling the historic exploration data along with data generated during the 2008 geochemical sampling program. This is in order to produce a district-scale compilation of geologic, structural, geochemical and geophysical data. It is expected that the result of this compilation will be the generation of new targets which may be worthy of follow up.

This page was updated on Nov 14, 2008

Dorian L (Dusty) Nicol, B.Sc. Geo, M.A. Geo., Tournigan's President and CEO, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained on this website.  

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