Tournigan Gold acquires uranium portfolio

Vancouver — Tournigan Gold (TVC-V) has agreed to acquire a portfolio of uranium mining claims in Wyoming.

The Vancouver-based company inked a deal with Sweetwater River Resources to acquire six groups of claims in the Shirley basin, the Great Divide basin and the Green River basin.

Mines in the state have produced 193 million lbs. of uranium oxide, mostly from open pits but also from underground and in situ leach operations.

Four mines in the Shirley basin produced uranium between 1960 and 1980. The Great Divide basin, too, hosts a past-producer, and was explored considerably during the last uranium boom. The Sweetwater claims in the Green River basin include portions of a 13-mile-long zone prospective for uranium mineralization.

Five of the six groups of claims host “drill-documented” uranium mineralization, while two contain historic resource estimates. Major mining and oil-and-gas companies previously explored some of the properties.

Tournigan recently acquired four uranium deposits in the Slovak Republic, where the company also holds the advanced Kremnica gold project. The company applied for, and was granted, three exploration licences by the government for annual licence fees of $12,000. No other consideration was paid. The properties contain resources that are not yet compliant with National Instrument 43-101.

The company plans to acquire more uranium mining claims in the western U.S. while it explores the properties in Wyoming.

Tournigan can earn 85% of the Wyoming properties by paying US$50,000, spending an initial US$90,000 on exploration and acquisitions, issuing 200,000 of its shares to Sweetwater, and making modest anniversary payments. The company can acquire the remaining 15% interest for shares, based on an independent valuation.

Meanwhile in Eastern Europe, Tournigan is acquiring three exploration licences in eastern Slovakia. The licences cover four uranium deposits, one of which, Novoveska Huta, is a past-producer. Uranovy, a state owned company now defunct, calculated an inferred resource of 12 million tonnes grading 0.07% U3O8 in addition to a speculative resource of 75 million tonnes averaging 0.03% molybdenum. The company used a cutoff grade of 0.015% U3O8 to arrive at the estimate, which predates National Instrument 43-101.

Mineralization at Novoveska Huta occurs primarily as uraninite, uranium-titanium oxides and molybdenite in a strongly altered (carbonatized and sericitized) and brecciated sequence of andesites and dacites. Past metallurgical testing indicated recoveries of 88-90% for uranium and up to 94% for molybdenum using a pressure-leach process.

The Jahodna deposit, 40 km to the east, has an inferred resource of 1.1 million tonnes in a high-grade block averaging 0.53% U3O8 plus a lower-grade resource of 1.1 million tonnes of 0.22% U3O8. The estimates are based on a cutoff grade of 0.03% U3O8.

The state company drilled almost 18,000 metres in 53 holes on the project between 1985 and 1991.

Uranium mineralization at Jahodna is typically uraninite and brannerite coatings and impregnations within the fine-grained matrices of Permian volcanic breccias and volcano-clastic sediments. Metallurgical tests indicated recoveries similar to those at Novoveska Huta.

A third licence hosts two deposits containing historic resources of 1.5 million tonnes grading 0.22% U3O8 and 300,000 tonnes grading 0.2% U3O8.

Uranovy prieskum calculated the resources in the late 1960s using data from 900 surface and underground drill holes coupled with more than 8,600 metres of underground development and test adits.

Metallurgical tests showed potential uranium recoveries of 90-93% in a sulphuric acid and carbon pressure leaching circuit. Limited in situ leach testing showed uranium recoveries ranging from 72% to 83%.