Tournigan Gold Corporation: Additional Information on Preliminary Assessment at Kremnica Friday April 2, 10:44 am ET
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Apr 2, 2004) - Tournigan Gold Corporation ("Tournigan") has been asked by the TSX Venture Exchange to provide additional information regarding the updated Kremnica Preliminary Assessment announced on March 16, 2004. The Company reported projected average annual production of 89,324 ounces of gold equivalent per year over 10 years. This is based on projected average annual production of 84,093 oz of gold and 512,354 oz of silver. The conversion to gold equivalent is based on dividing the projected gross revenue by the gold price used in the assessment of $385/oz.
Tournigan reported the Sturec Project using the terms "conceptual mineable resource" and "mineable ounces", which do not comply with disclosure requirements of NI 43-101. The Company retracts the use of these terms, although the methodology used in the completion of the Preliminary Assessment complies with NI 43-101. The Preliminary Assessment is based on the following mineral resource estimate:
Sturec Project - Conceptual Resource (within proposed pit) -------------------------------------------------- Class of Cut-off Gold Silver Tonnes Ounces, Ounces, Resource Grade Grade, Grade, Gold Silver (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) -------------------------------------------------- Indicated 0.77 1.86 14.7 6,596,200 393,041 3,059,891 -------------------------------------------------- Inferred 0.77 1.86 14.7 8,743,800 521,008 4,056,134 --------------------------------------------------
As reported in the March 16 news release, it should be noted that the resources used in the assessment includes "Inferred" resources that are currently considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. The "Inferred" resources have only been included to determine the potential viability of the project, on which a decision has been made to initiate further development work. Generally, an economic evaluation would only be completed on "Measured" and "Indicated" resources, and there is no certainty that this Preliminary Assessment will be realized.
Sturec Project - Forecast Production ------------------------------------ Tonnes Gold Ounces Silver Ounces Strip Ratio -------------------------------------------------- 15,340,000 840,926 5,123,538 1.93 --------------------------------------------------
Note that this is the tonnage of material that would be sent to the processing facility proposed for construction alongside the Sturec Deposit. The "forecast ounces" are adjusted for the amount of material lost in the process using estimated recoveries of 92% for gold and 72% for silver and represent the gold and silver that would be shipped for final refining.
Net Present Value
Tournigan Gold previously translated the conceptual Net Present Value of US$ 47 million, C$ 62 million for the Sturec project (as currently proposed) to the current number of issued and outstanding Tournigan shares, resulting in a NPV of C$ 1.77 per outstanding share. The NPV was calculated using US$385/oz gold and US$ 5.50/oz silver prices. The same calculation utilizing the current number of fully-diluted Tournigan shares is C$ 1.24 per fully-diluted share. Note that in order to reach the fully-diluted number of shares (50 million), Tournigan would receive C$ 4.3 million cash in financing proceeds. There has been no attempt to include the as-yet-unknown number of shares Tournigan would have to issue in order to fully finance the US$ 48.9 million capital cost (C$ 64 million) based on 100% equity financing of this capital cost.
Qualified Person
Dr. Kent Ausburn, VP of Exploration, remains Tournigan's Qualified Person in respect of the Kremnica gold project. The Preliminary Assessment was completed by Beacon Hill Consultants (1988) Ltd, and authored by the following: W.P. Stokes, PEng, B.M. Briggs PEng, J.W.R. Fox, PEng, and G. Kirkham, PGeoph.
Corporate Matters
Tournigan Gold will issue 450,000 options exercisable for 5 years at a strike price of $0.50 to senior executives. This issuance is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. A vesting schedule will apply for 260,000 of these options.
The Company is pleased to announce its new corporate address at Suite 301, 700 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1G8. Telephone, fax and email details remain as before.
Tournigan Gold is focused on developing two advanced gold projects in Europe - Curraghinalt in Northern Ireland and Kremnica in Slovakia. Feasibility drilling at Curraghinalt is nearing completion with the final feasibility study to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2004. Kremnica will be the focus of exploration and development work in 2004, with feasibility studies expected to be completed during the third quarter 2005. These plans remain subject to the raising of additional financing.
TOURNIGAN GOLD CORPORATION
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