Ireland Inc. provided an update to its technical program at the Columbus Project, located in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Ireland is continuing the process of transferring its gold and silver extraction process from AuRIC Metallurgical Laboratories facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, to its on-site pilot plant in Nevada. Concentration, leach and extraction tests are scheduled to commence shortly under the supervision of AuRIC.

Upon the successful completion of a series of five ton batch leach tests, Ireland intends to begin operating the pilot plant on a continuous basis and then commence its Phase Four Drill Program, with the goal of improving the geological definition of the North Sand Zone. In the first quarter of 2013, Ireland continued the process of transferring its successful gold and silver extraction process from its test location at AuRIC's facility in Salt Lake City to Ireland's on-site pilot plant in Nevada. The goal of this technology transfer is the continuous operation of the on-site pilot plant.

During the quarter, Ireland's technical program focused on upgrading the on-site water supply to improve its compatibility with thiosulphate leaching. Work included comparative analyses of the municipal water supply utilized by AuRIC at its Salt Lake City laboratory and the water provided by the on-site well at the Columbus Project. Based upon information derived from these comparative analyses, Ireland recently completed the installation of a new water conditioning circuit at the Columbus Project in order to supply process water to the leach circuit that is similar in character to the water that was utilized for all of the successful leach tests conducted at AuRIC's Salt Lake City facilities.

In addition, during the quarter Ireland completed an upgrade to the on-site gravity concentration circuit in an effort to improve efficiency and reduce potential abrasive wear on the equipment. Ireland experienced a six week delay in this process due to the late arrival of equipment and the unavailability of qualified technical support. The pilot plant is now ready to commence on-site multi-ton concentration, leach and extraction tests under the supervision of AuRIC's technical personnel.

Each batch test will involve the processing of approximately five tons of head material in order to produce and leach concentrates, followed by filtration, resin extraction and precious metals production. During this period, Ireland may continue to upgrade the precious metals processing and extraction equipment as necessary to improve operating efficiencies and circuit capacity. Once these batch extraction rates have been completed to Ireland's satisfaction, the Company intends to begin the process of phasing in the operations of the pilot plant on a continuous basis, with a target of processing up to 20 tons of head material per day.

After effective operating parameters for the leaching and metals recovery components of the extraction circuit have been fully implemented and the pilot plant is operating continuously, the Company intends to initiate its Phase Four drill program, permits for which have already been granted. The Phase Four drill program will consist of 31 holes drilled to a depth of 200 feet below the surface of the Columbus Salt Marsh Basin. These drill holes will cover an additional 0.48 square miles adjacent to southern border of the North Sand Zone.

The goals of the Phase Four drilling program will be to expand the boundaries of the North Sand Zone and to improve the size and definition of the mineralization estimates for the North Sand Zone.