Tempus shakes the tin for $1.1m to progress work at the Elizabeth-Blackdome gold play

Canada-based and ASX-Toronto dual lister resources microcap Tempus Resources (ASX:TMR) has today unveiled its latest capital raising exercise, a non-brokered private placement, to raise $1.1m to develop its gold project in British Columbia. 

The Elizabeth-Blackdome Gold Project is located 200km to the north of Canadian commercial hub Vancouver, and 35km northeast of the historical Bralorne Gold Mine, which produced a whopping 4.2Moz of gold between the 1920s and 1970s. 

That project is so named because it is broken up into two separate zones (Elizabeth and Blackdome respectively.) 

Elizabeth relatively close to Bralorne 

The Bralorne Gold Mine is still of interest to local players, with the asset being sold to Canadian explorer Talisker Resources for $9.58m in 2019. 

Its success, Tempus hopes, can be replicated at Elizabeth.

Investor information provider Undervalued Equity notes high-grade gold is that over concentrations of 5g/t; compare that to the following historical drill hits at the Elizabeth zone: 

• 5.06m @ 76.5g/t gold 

• 2.50m @ 96.3g/t 

• 0.91m @ 134.9g/t 

• 1.46m @ 45.1g/t 

While these eye-catching high grade results are impressive on their own merit, they are not conclusive evidence that such high-grade pockets are common at the acreage. 

Blackdome also a potential breadwinner 

Blackdome, meanwhile, sits 30km north of the Elizabeth zone, and itself was the historical site of 225Koz of gold output. 

Blackdome is further bolstered by a Canadian mineral resource completed in 2010 posting 52.6Koz gold at a stunning grade of 11.29 grams of gold per tonne of ore (11.29g/t), and 25.9Koz at 8.79g/t. 

In the 2010 drilling that informed the resource; gold was visible in at least one section of core.

Part of that interest is further backed by an existing gold mill at Blackdome which is capable of processing 300tpd and is fully permitted, along with an attached tailings facility. 

Tempus intends to construct a 4km haul road at the Blackdome mill as part of its forward operations; the company further notes it is closer to major highways, and airfields, than the Elizabeth zone to the south. 

Tempus does urge caution, however, given that the 2010 resource is now 12 years old, and remains to be verified in entirety by the Tempus team. 

So why is Tempus raising $1.1m? 

Tempus will use the placement to raise funds to continue developing its Elizabeth-Blackdome project; for which 19 recently perforated drillholes are subject to pending assay results. 

One drillhole in particular is of interest to Tempus, called EZ22-20, which intersected wide zones of quartz containing visible gold; separate to the core mentioned earlier which intersected the same back in 2010. 

Of foremost note to shareholders will likely be Tempus’s incoming resource upgrade to be published in H1 of 2023. There is no immediate word if the $1.1m will go towards the Blackdome haul road at this time. 

The placement will be conducted by issuing 16.6m “flow through shares,” an instrument which is only available under Canadian securities laws. They will be priced at 6.7c Australian; each flow through unit also includes a warrant to purchase another share at 9c for 24 months following issue of the flow through. 

A four month hold period applies for the first 16.6m shares.

A look at Tempus's six month charts shows a company not without its shareholder interest, but, low liquidity