Tempus Resources Ltd (ASX:TMR) is mobilising drilling equipment to the Elizabeth sector of Blackdome-Elizabeth Gold Project in British Columbia, Canada, where around 6,000 metres of diamond drilling is planned before the end of 2020.
Utilising two rigs, the drilling at Elizabeth will focus on the high-grade Southwest Vein portion of historical mineralisation and on key exploration targets.
This follows the company completing a drilling program at the Blackdome sector of the project consisting of 26 holes for 5,087 metres across six target areas.
Drilling at Elizabeth
The company is moving the drill rig to Elizabeth in coming days and this will be joined by a second rig to expedite the planned 6,000-metre program.
This program at Elizabeth has a dual focus with the first being on verifying and expanding on the high-grade Southwest Vein, which hosts an historical resource of 328,280 tonnes at 13.63 g/t gold for 143,900 ounces.
Tempus’ second focus is on extensions to the Main and West Vein mineralisation.
The second rig will initially focus on several new exploration targets, including a compelling gold in soil anomaly around 2.5 kilometres east of Elizabeth, where a coherent anomaly up to 0.66 g/t gold was identified by Tempus in late 2019.
Site preparations for the drilling at Elizabeth are nearing completion, with the camp, facilities and equipment set up to handle the imminent cooler autumn and winter weather.
Drilling operations will start as soon as the final program of work approval is received and this is expected in the coming weeks.
Awaiting assay results
In addition to samples from the new Tempus drilling being submitted to the laboratory, 43 samples from available historical drilling have been submitted to the laboratory.
These samples are from previously sampled zones and previously unsampled zones considered prospective for gold mineralisation based on geological observations.
Historically, duplicate analysis on samples from Blackdome have shown very-high variability, so Tempus considers it prudent to conduct duplicate analysis on both the historical and new samples before releasing the full set of results.
Final batches of samples have been dispatched this week, with all results expected to be available in around 3-5 weeks.
Blackdome-Elizabeth Project
Blackdome-Elizabeth Gold Project in British Columbia is made up of two separate mineralisation styles, the Elizabeth zone and the Blackdome zone, and is spread over a 350 square kilometre area, which is relatively unexplored.
Recently, Tempus raised $2.5 million through a placement of shares which was supported by new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors.
Proceeds will be primarily used to fund accelerated exploration at the Blackdome-Elizabeth Gold Project and other gold projects in Ecuador.