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LAtIn AMeRIcA

Tempus headed

for the TSX

Tempus has postponed drilling at Rio
Zarza in Ecuador until at least Q4 2020

empus Resources Ltd managing director Brendan Borg has the coming months as part of a planned capital raising to ensure
Tflagged a likely dual listing on the TSX for the Americas-fo- the company is funded to complete exploration programmes in
cused explorer. both Canada and Ecuador over the course of 2020.
Borg said North American investors had reacted positively to Borg said the company was looking to complete a decent
the company’s acquisitions of the Zamora gold assets and the portion of that capital raise via the incentivised Canadian flow-
Blackdome-Elizabeth project in Canada over the past year and through financing scheme.
it therefore made sense for Tempus to consider future admission “It allows us to raise money at a premium to the underlying
to the TSX to complement its existing ASX listing. raise price, which is a really beneficial tax incentive that they
“Ultimately with Tempus we’ll be looking to dual list it on the have in Canada, on the basis that the money raised needs to go
TSX,” Borg told Paydirt last month. into the ground in Canada, which is what we were planning to do
“Given the location of our projects, we do get a lot of interest with the funds anyway,” Borg said.
from North America, so in Canada and the US in particular, and “We’re liaising with some key broker and investor groups over
also given the fact that we have a brownfield project in Canada in North America regarding that capital raise right at the mo-
that’s had past production and has existing resources.” ment, I guess with a view to being able to complete that raise in
While no date has been set for a potential Canadian trading the coming weeks to months.
debut, Tempus will test the North American investment waters in “In terms of investor interest, obviously at the moment senti-
ment is a little bit up and down, but the market seems to be
coming to terms with the likely path forward with the COVID-19
pandemic. The fact we’re in gold and in a Tier-1 jurisdiction is go-
ing to put us at an advantage over a lot of other companies that
will be looking to raise funds in the coming months.”
Despite listing on the ASX in August 2018 on the back of two
Australian-based projects, Tempus was soon presented with the
opportunity to pick up the Zamora projects in Ecuador where the
likes of Solgold plc have been enjoying exploration success for
several years.
A drilling permit was recently granted for Rio Zarza, the key
concession on the Zamora package which is directly adjacent to
the Fruta del Norte mine operated by Lundin Gold Inc.
“Our projects contain similar geological structures to what we
see on the Lundin ground where Fruta del Norte was discov-
ered, so that was really the key attraction for us,” Borg said.
“It’s in a part of the world that has just recently reopened for
exploration and reopened for the redevelopment of large-scale
projects, with Fruta del Norte being one of two large-scale pro-
THE PEAK INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION SUPPORTING jects that have come into production in these last couple of
years.
COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS IN LATIN AMERICA “There is an improving attitude towards Ecuador in the market.
ALABC is committed to providing the highest level of A lot of big Australian companies are in there doing explora-
support to your organisation as we have done for the tion and development work and this was a chance for us to get
past 30 years. our hands on what we saw as some highly prospective ground
directly adjacent to Fruta del Norte. And we had a good team
We are providing constant relevant and reliable COVID- that came with the project, which is always very important when
19 updates via our website. you’re going into a new country for the first time.”
Please contact us for collaboration opportunities to Although the drilling permit for Rio Zarza is now in hand, Tem-
provide the market with valuable insights and support. pus has opted to postpone its maiden campaign until Q4 2020
due in part to the travel restrictions imposed in Ecuador because
Webinar Partner with
Registration us of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Borg said the company also believed it was more prudent to
ALABC COVID-19 HELP LINE 1-300-0-ALABC focus on the lower risk brownfields opportunity at Blackdome-

Page 40 MaY 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT