The Tempus Resources Ltd (ASX: TMR) share price is soaring today, leaving many investors wondering what's provided the micro-cap with such a dramatic boost.
Tempus Resources shares boomed in early trade, at one point rocketing by 38% to trade at 24 cents.
At the time of writing, the mineral explorer's shares are trading at 20.5 cents, still 24.24% higher than Friday's closing price.
While there hasn't been any news out of the company today to prompt these share price moves, Tempus has provided the market with several updates lately. Let's take a look.
Tempus Resources placement
On Friday, Tempus announced that its successful private placement raked in $1.9 million for the company, which it will put towards continuing the drilling program at its Canadian Elizabeth Gold Project. The placement included more than 12.4 million shares at 15.3 cents apiece. Publicly traded shares were going for 16.5 cents each before news of the placement broke.
The company's drilling program was suspended in December last year after only completing 11 holes. Though, according to Tempus, the assay results from those holes returned bonanza-grade gold intercepts.
Assay results from the 11 holes included:
- 5.0m at 61.3 grams of gold per tonne from 116.5 metres, including 1.5 metres at 186.0 grams of gold per tonne from 118.0 metres; and,
- 3.2 metres at 28.1 grams of gold per tonne from 184.0 metres, including 0.5 metres at 178.0 grams of gold per tonne from 184.5 metres.
The drill program is fully permitted and expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2021.
What else has Tempus been up to lately?
Tempus released the assay results from the Elizabeth Gold Project's 11 holes on 8 February, sending its share price rocketing. Tempus shares closed the day trading at 30 cents – 25% higher than the previous session.
Since then, prior to today's surge, the Tempus share price has been mostly falling. As of Friday's close, the company's shares had dropped 45% since 8 February.
This was despite a number of seemingly positive announcements.
On 22 February, Tempus announced it had finished the first phase of exploration at its Valle de Tigre II Project, located in Southeast Ecuador. It stated it had found coarse gold in streams using panning methods. The exploration also found visible copper.
While the announcement seemed positive, it included bad news of the company's Rio Zarza project – also located in Ecuador. Due to COVID-19, Ecuadorian Presidential elections and recent exploration results, the company suspended strategic discussions regarding the Rio Zarza project.
Then, in late March, Tempus shared two pieces of news.
Firstly, it announced it had completed a joint venture agreement with Robinhood Gold Corp. The agreement gave Robinhood the ability to earn a 75% interest in Tempus' Mineral Creek Project. To do so it must spend $2 million in work commitments before the end of 2023. Robinhood was also given the option to purchase another 5% of the project for C$1 million. The Mineral Creek Project is located in Canada, in an area with a long history of gold mining.
Finally, Tempus shared the results from the sampling program at the Valle del Tigre II Project. The results confirmed the presence of both gold and copper and spurred further exploration.
Tempus Resources share price snapshot
Though there is no apparent reason for the surge, today's boost to the Tempus Resources share price will be welcome news for shareholders, with the company's shares performing poorly of late.
Even after today's gains, Tempus Resources shares are still down by around 15% year to date. Although, they are still up by around 22% over the last 12 months.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $14 million, with approximately 86 million shares outstanding.
