-- Posted Tuesday, 31 August 2010 | | Source: GoldSeek.com
BUTTE, Montana - We have more on Timberline Resources (TLR and V.TBR), the combination mine engineering/gold explorer whose Canada and USA-traded shares are gaining smartly.
Idaho's Timberline has its footprint in Idaho, where it is based, in Montana, where its Butte Highlands gold mine is a year or so away from reality; and in Nevada. Timberline also is staked in Peru via an investment in Rae Wallace Mining.
Timberline's largest footprint comes from a drilling unit: Timberline Drilling operates core drilling underground and exploration drilling at surface. Mining engineer Ron Guill and his Western USA company Small Mines Development, is a backer and joint venture partner of Timberline in Montana. The drilling subsidiary provides steady dollars to the overall company's sales sheet.
This is the one small gold company whose shares I don't own and - after seeing Mr. Guill, CEO Randy Hardy and 
exploration chief Paul Dircksen at their muddy best in Butte recently -- wish I had bought in immediately at 90 cents a share USA. It's $1.15 today (Monday).
CEO Hardy tells Timberline's South Eureka property in Nevada is working on mapping and sampling, geochemistry, geophysics and 34,000 feet of drilling. "We are focusing on the Lookout Mountain project and enhancing the existing resource there, but we are also doing some exploration on other projects on the property. The property is over 23 square miles," he says.
In Montana, the Butte Highlands Gold Project, which is a 50-50 proposition, is on schedule, he says. "Ron Guill's affiliate of Small Mine Development (SMD), Highland Mining LLC, is our JV partner, and SMD is the contractor there doing all of the site development as well as the underground development of the ramp and the mining once that begins," Randy Hardy tells me. "We have submitted our application to the state for the Hard Rock Operating Permit and we have received their first round of comments. We still expect that the permitting process will take approximately one year, and we expect that we will receive the permit in the third quarter of 2011."
Mr. Guill's SMD and the JV's operating personnel are the operators of the underground project. The reality is that Mr. Guill's team, whom I have met, interact every minute of the working day with engineers, geologists and other Timberline employees.
Timberline is drilling a few exploration holes around the expected mineralization at Butte. How it works: Timberline Drilling is doing the core drilling at Butte Highlands as well as at the South Eureka property in Nevada.
Timberline Drilling just extended a contract with Newmont Mining (NEM) in Nevada. That is steady-Freddie dollars. Timberline Drilling has been profitable and providing positive cash flow to the company for the past five quarters, Mr. Hardy says.
"As you can see, we are focused on our exploration properties since we are not the operator at the Butte Highlands JV," Mr. Hardy says. "Paul Dircksen has been very successful throughout his career at identifying properties that can become operating mines, and we are capitalizing on that. We expect to continue to acquire exploration properties where we can add value and subsequently monetize through other JVs, royalties, option agreements and so on."
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