VANCOUVER, BC--(MARKET WIRE)--Nov 1, 2004 -- As a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Company is issuing the following press release to clarify its disclosure respecting the Curraghinalt Gold Project in Northern Ireland.
The 1997 CSA report, authored by G.Earls & J. Guard includes a resource estimate of 468,097 tonnes grading 16.96 g/t or 255,000 contained ounces that does not qualify as a current mineral resource and does not comply with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 "Standards Of Disclosure For Mineral Projects" ("NI 43-101"). The CSA 1997 report is not NI 43-101 compliant and was not filed on SEDAR. Investors should not rely on the CSA estimate and the Company retracts all disclosure of this report and resource.
The Peatfield 2003 technical report quotes an independent geotechnical professional as follows: " ?the Measured and Indicated geological resources appear to be in the range of 400,000 to 450,000 tonnes grading somewhere between 14.0 and 16.0 g Au/tonne." Peatfield goes on to state, "This would imply a gold content (for measured and indicated material) of something between 180,000 and 231,000 ounces, with no allowance for inferred material. It is important to note that, notwithstanding [this] comment, the earlier estimates probably would not be considered to be National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 compliant; accordingly, detailed figures are not reported herein. [The quoted] estimate, and those on which it is based, should be regarded as conceptual. There is insufficient information to define, in a fully compliant manner, the total resource for the deposit, and more work is required. In general, the estimates of potential quantity and grade have been derived from polygonal estimates on longitudinal sections."
The potential quantities and grades have been determined by a review of 210 historical drill holes totaling 18,000 metres, 68 trenches totaling 2,800 metres and face- and channel-sampling from 700 metres of underground adit development. The potential quantities and grades listed above are exploration targets, in that there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource of that magnitude on the property and that it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the development of a mineral resource of that size on the property.
The current NI 43-101-compliant estimate for the Curraghinalt property is as reported in the Technical Report dated January 20, 2003 by Giles Peatfiled. This estimate was completed in 1999 by Peatfield and Zbeetnoff primarily as a due-diligence exercise on only the central portion of two of the seven veins that historically have been called the Curraghinalt deposit. Therefore, this estimate does not reflect all of the to-date historical exploration results produced on the property. Peatfield and Zbeetnoff reported that their estimate corresponded well with earlier resource estimates for the two veins checked. Their estimate is as follows:
Central Zone Gold Grade Tonnes Contained Gold (g/t) (ounces)
Indicated 17.5 198,000 111,678 Inferred 16.3 60,400 31,709
Quoting Peatfield and Zbeetnoff: "Resource estimates were made for two of the many veins present on the property, as a check of previous work." The estimators "prepared composites based on 1.5 metre minimum drilled lengths," using uncut assays for this polygonal estimate, "using a 20 metre radius for Indicated material and an additional 20 metre radius for Inferred, but only included Inferred material internal to Indicated blocks." The effective true width of the drilled lengths was reported to exceed 1 metre and "in almost all cases exceeded 1.25 metres." The cutoff grade for each block was 6 g/t. Peatfield and Zbeetnoff used a specific gravity of 2.7 as a base case. The full Peatfield report is available on the Tournigan (Vancouver:TVC.V - News) website at www.tournigan.com.
The Company recently completed 26 diamond drill holes at Curraghinalt, of which 19 were infill holes, drilled within the boundaries of the various historical resource estimates. In September, 2004, the Company commissioned an independent resource estimation and technical report to be completed according to NI 43-101 standards by a 43-101-defined qualified person. This resource estimation will include the 210 historical diamond drill holes, as well as Tournigan's 19 in-fill diamond holes. The Company anticipates receiving the results of this independent technical report and resource estimation in approximately six weeks. The 43-101 technical report and resource estimate will be subsequently filed on SEDAR. At that time, the Company will be in a position to formulate its future plans for the exploration and potential future development of the Curraghinalt property and will determine whether it is appropriate to proceed with a pre-feasibility study as announced on July 22, 2004.
The economic viability of the Curraghinalt project has not yet been established, and the Company will not be in a position to make a decision respecting production until it has obtained a feasibility study respecting the property.
As required by NI 43-101 regulations, Tournigan notes that the above estimate of mineral resources may be materially adversely affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other, as-yet-unknown issues. At this stage, none of these issues have been fully identified. No adverse conditions have yet been noted by the Company, and all required approvals, permits, licences, and insurance for this stage of the project have been sought and granted. The Peatfield and Zbeetnoff report above notes that when the report was written in 1999, there were issues surrounding restrictions on the use of explosives in Northern Ireland. This specific issue has also not been fully defined at this early stage, but investigations to date have indicated that this may no longer be a material issue. The regulations also require the Company to caution the reader that mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
Tournigan's Qualified Person, Dr. Kent Ausburn, has reviewed all technical disclosure in this release.
TOURNIGAN GOLD CORPORATION
"Damien Reynolds" Damien Reynolds, President and Chief Executive Officer The TSX Venture Exchange has reviewed but does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Statements in this press release other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties inherent in the Company's business, including risks inherent in mineral exploration and development. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
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