Timberline Resources Corporation reported the final drill results from the 2022 drilling program at its 100%-controlled Eureka Project in Nevada. Eight drill holes are reported here, including four from the Water Well Zone (WWZ), three from the Oswego target, and one large step out into the South Pediment area. Six of the eight holes were drilled with diamond core (or a pre-collar with reverse circulation and core tail), and two of the holes were completed with reverse circulation only.

These eight holes constitute approximately 2,549 meters of the recently completed 6,662-meter drill program at Eureka. Each of the holes in the WWZ encountered significant Carlin-type gold mineralization, confirming that the basal contact of the Dunderberg formation is consistently mineralized over a large area. Three drill holes (BHSE-225C, 231C, and 241C) near BHSE-212C yielded significant thicknesses of gold ranging from 8.5 to 29.0 meters.

Geology and Interpretation of the WWZ Results: The four core holes in the southern part of the WWZ were directed at filling in the geological details around the thick zone of high-grade gold encountered in BHSE-212C. That drill hole passed through very well-developed collapse breccias at the contact between the Dunderberg and Hamburg formations that were intensely carbonized and clay-altered and infiltrated by arsenic and fine-grained pyrite. The heart of that 41.0-meter-thick interval included 19.8m averaging 9.5 g/t gold.

These zones of intensely altered and mineralized breccia are believed to be best developed near faults. The latest drilling has confirmed continuity of the WWZ mineralization to the east, west, and north from BHSE-212C, but the assays also returned lower grades in each of these intercepts. BHSE-225C was collared approximately 35m west of BHSE-212C, and BHSE-231C was located approximately 56m east of the high-grade hole.

BHSE-241C was drilled inclined to the west from the same drill pad as BHSE-231C such that it penetrated the target horizon approximately 20m north of the gold intercept in BHSE-212C. Careful examination of the drill core and assay data suggests that the high-grade intercept in BHSE-212C occupies a topographic low or trough within the top of the Hamburg formation. The Dunderberg formation also appears to thin a bit to the east.

These phenomena are most likely related to one or more faults in the area (shown in blue with question marks on the cross section), which juxtapose the key Dunderberg-Hamburg contact into close proximity with the important Highwall Fault. The position of any individual drill hole relative to these newly realized faults and the Highwall or Buried Normal faults may be a determinant of the thickness and grade of gold in this part of the WWZ. These sorts of gaps and variability in grade and thickness are expected in Carlin-type deposits when chopped into segments and offset by numerous faults.

Importantly, the high-grade zone was already extended approximately 75m to the south with drillhole BHSE-226C (22.8m at 4.39 g/t gold, including 7.6m at 11.56 g/t gold, as reported in a Company news release dated September 14, 2022). The high-grade portion of the WWZ remains untested to the south and southeast for more than 500m. Drill hole BHSE-228C in this phase of results was an offset of approximately 60m southwest from BHSE-226C.

The mineralized contact was present in this hole at the expected depth, but it comprised only 15.2m of 0.57 g/t gold. The Lookout Mountain gold resource continues for more than 1.0 kilometre south from this latest drilling. Hence, Timberline geologists expect similar downdip targets, such as the WWZ, to occur in favorable settings along its eastern front.

BHSE-229C was the Company's first attempt to chase the Dunderberg-Hamburg contact into this South Pediment area. While the drill hole did not cut significant high-grade mineralization, it did encounter 3.7m that averaged 0.63 g/t of oxide gold mineralization at the top of the Hamburg formation beneath structurally thinned Dunderberg formation. There is clear evidence of major faulting in the hole, so the team will be working to better understand the geology here before following up.

Geology and Interpretation of the Oswego Result: This round of drilling did not return significant gold results from the Oswego target. Two of the three holes (BHSE-232 and 235) in this area were RC holes aimed at testing for significant expansions of the surface and shallow drill indicated gold mineralization along this major fault structure. BHSE-232 did not encounter the western splay of the Dugout Tunnel fault as expected, so this means that a major break between Cambrian and Ordovician rocks is likely between here and the IP anomaly occupying the Graben Zone.

The location of BHSE-235 was dictated in part by road access due to the steep topography at Oswego. It was a vertical hole into the Eldorado dolomite, which is an important host of silver in the district. There was anomalous gold over about 37m of the hole, including 1.5m of 0.34 g/t, but there was silver mineralization averaging 2.25 g/t over approximately 27m.

As is typical of the Carbonate Replacement Deposits (CRD) of the district, the silver is associated with elevated antimony, lead, and zinc. Timberline also drilled the first core hole ever into the Oswego target, BHSE-240C. The hole was aimed to the east underneath the strong surface and shallow drill indicated gold reported in late 2021 and early 2022. Once again, the gold results were below expectations (29m of weakly anomalous gold with a maximum assay of 0.35 g/t), but there was a 15m zone of enriched silver (> 1.0 g/t) accompanied by antimony, lead, and zinc. The shallow gold at Oswego remains open to the north and northeast, but it appears to occupy a complex fault system that may truncate or offset it at depth.

Silicification and sulfidation are intense over a large area, and this is new evidence of CRD-type veining and replacement style mineralization that may constitute a separate target.