Eureka Project Program Includes First Drilling Of CRD

COEUR D'ALENE, ID - Timberline Resources Corporation announced its 2023 plans for exploration, engineering, and baseline environmental work at its Eureka Project in Nevada. The program includes the first drilling of the carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) type gold-silver targets at New York Canyon and a return to several surface oxide gold targets at the Lookout Mountain Deposit. The Company also plans to test for extensions of the Carlin-type gold system at the Water Well Zone (WWZ).

The plan to drill several different areas in 2023 is a reflection of the different stages of discovery and development at the multiple targets across the 70 km2 project. Timberline geologists are very excited to conduct the first drilling on the newly acquired patented claims in New York Canyon, within the heart of the Eureka CRD district. The opportunities at Lookout Mountain and the WWZ involve offsetting known mineralization, filling in gaps, and testing for downdip extensions.

An important aspect of this year's work will be to update the operational and permitting plan with state and federal regulators. Timberline initiated metallurgical, engineering, and environmental work between 2012 and 2014. The 2023 plan includes several near-term tasks, longer lead time items, and baseline monitoring to build out the key project development databases.

Patrick Highsmith, President and CEO, said, "This will be an exciting year at our Eureka Project as we combine high priority exploration targets with material work on the Lookout Mountain gold resource. The large Eureka CRD district is yielding high-grade silver at the Ruby Hill Mine and Fad Shaft projects, and we will kick off our 2023 drilling at New York Canyon where we have recently confirmed high-grade gold and silver at surface from what appears to be overlapping CRD and Carlin-type gold systems. Realizing that there are higher-grade gold targets in and around the Lookout - WWZ trend, we shall also be looking to fill in and grow the resource with drilling this year. We also intend to add value to that resource by completing key metallurgical, engineering, and environmental work that will be required for economic studies and permitting."

Some of the historical patented claims at New York Canyon date back to the earliest days of the Eureka mining district when high grade silver CRD-type mineralization sparked a boom that led to one of America's biggest silver districts. The recent drill success from i80 Gold, Paycore Minerals, and Timberline's 2021-2022 drillholes northeast of the WWZ suggest that the full extent of that silver-rich system is not yet known. Timberline recently reported surface sampling from newly acquired claims in New York Canyon that included very high silver and gold values over a significant area.

The 2023 drill season will begin at New York Canyon. The initial drill target lies on the patented claims that are cut by a high-quality gravel road that intersects US Highway 50 approximately 1 kilometer to the north. The high gold and silver samples occur in the Hanson Creek formation at surface, but Timberline geologists believe that the high grades are controlled by northwest-striking faults. There is also a deeper target where favorable rocks from the Pogonip group are projected to dip beneath the high-grade surface showing and should also be cut by the faults.

The geochemistry of the New York Canyon mineralization differs from the recently drilled WWZ because it contains evidence of both silver-dominant CRD's and Carlin-type gold. In addition to the lead, zinc, and copper, the high-grade samples reported here are commonly high in arsenic, antimony, thallium, mercury, barium, and sometimes bismuth and molybdenum. Such complex geochemistry may represent overprinting mineral systems, wherein the earlier CRD mineralization enriched the rocks in silver, base metals, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, and molybdenum, and the later Carlin-type gold bearing fluids used the same structures to infuse more arsenic, antimony, thallium, barium, and mercury.

Timberline plans to drill several reverse circulation (RC) holes across the controlling structures and beneath outcropping veins and alteration. Since this is the first drilling into this target, the program will also include one or two core holes in order to better understand the geological controls on the high-grade. The easy road access and patented claim holdings will facilitate a rapid start to the 2023 drill season at New York Canyon.

The Lookout Mountain gold resource comes to surface and includes significant oxide mineralization. After its acquisition of Staccato Gold in 2010, Timberline advanced the resource with initial metallurgical, environmental and geochemical test work, as well as preliminary geotechnical and mine design studies before publishing its NI 43-101 technical report in 2013. The Company intends to move forward with additional test work, engineering, and environmental studies during 2023 before updating the mineral resource late in the year.