Tempus Resources Ltd (ASX:TMR, TSX-V:TMRR) will focus its 2022 Canadian exploration program, including drilling, on mineralisation expansion at the Elizabeth Gold Project in southern British Columbia.
Drilling this year will focus on expansion of Blue Vein as well as the development of other vein targets including the Main Vein, West Vein and Ella Zone.
This program of 25-30 diamond core drill holes for approximately 8,500 metres aims to build on the success of the initial 39-hole, 9,826 metres Phase 1 program completed by Tempus at Elizabeth since drilling began in November 2020.
Contractor secured
Tempus president and CEO Jason Bahnsen said, “The 2022 exploration program at Elizabeth will focus on further delineation of the new Blue Vein and the expansion of the overall mineralisation for the project in advance of preparing a resource estimate.
"We have executed a contract with our drilling contractor, Full Force Drilling, and we plan to begin mobilisation to site in May with drilling targeted to begin early June.”
The overall exploration drilling strategy for Elizabeth is focused on increasing the size and confidence level of the 2009 inferred resource of 522,843 tonnes at 12.26 g/t for 206,139 ounces of contained gold.
Apart from a few infill drill holes intended to convert inferred resources to the indicated category, the majority of the drill holes completed by Tempus to intersect the gold vein structures are outside of the 2009 resource block model.
Plan view showing 2022 proposed drill holes at Elizabeth.
Blue Vein drilling
At Blue Vein, about 15 holes have been planned to target the expansion of the Blue Vein high-grade gold mineralisation along strike and depth.
The drilling will test the Blue Vein gold mineralisation over a total strike length of around 300 metres and to a depth of about 150 metres.
Blue Vein was discovered in 2021 with a total of seven holes intersecting the vein to date, including three holes with ‘bonanza’ grade intersections, and high-grade gold mineralisation has been identified over a strike length of more than 80 metres.
Other drilling
The West and Main Veins have minimal historic drilling and high-grade gold mineralisation was identified in surface trenching completed in 2003.
Tempus has planned about 10 holes to target the potential extension of these veins to the south of the surface trenching. Drilling will test the potential veins to a depth of about 200 metres.
Three holes have been planned to test the potential of the Ella Zone, which was identified by trenching completed in 2003.
The company completed one hole in 2021 which intersected 1 g/t gold mineralisation over 2 metres within a 4-metre vein system.
Discovery potential
In addition to these targets, a further two to five holes have been planned to test for the discovery of extra vein sets.
The Elizabeth Project is a multi-vein epithermal/orogenic system with historic bonanza-grade intercepts in drill core and surface trenching. There are more than nine known vein systems on the property hosting gold mineralisation.
There is potential for new vein discoveries northeast of the Blue Vein and in the unexplored zone between the South West Vein and the West Vein.
Tempus is targeting the completion of an updated NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Elizabeth project following the completion of the 2022 drill program.
The company is not currently planning to do any exploration fieldwork at the adjacent Blackdome Gold Mine in 2022.