North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Benchmark Metals Inc. Feb. 8 reported high-grade gold-silver intercepts from 2018 drilling at the Dukes Ridge zone on the company's Lawyers project in the Golden Triangle region of British Columbia.

Located about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of the Kemess copper-gold mine project, Lawyers is home to a small underground mine that produced 171,200 ounces of gold and 3.6 million oz of silver over a four-year period beginning in 1989.

The historical mining, carried out by Cheni Gold Mines, included production from Cliff Creek, Phoenix and AGB, three zones at Lawyers.

Benchmark's exploration is focused on Lawyers Trend, a 3,000-meter-long area that encompasses the Cliff Creek, Dukes Ridge, Phoenix and Phoenix East zones.

The latest round of drill results come from Dukes Ridge, an unmined zone that hosts 58,000 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.3 grams per metric ton (8,000 ounces) gold and 139.13 g/t (260,000 oz) silver.

The company said the 13 shallow holes – 11 reverse circulation and 2 diamond core holes – drilled at Dukes Ridge in 2018 has expanded the potential resource area, indicating gold-silver mineralization with a total strike length of at least 530 meters that is open at depth below 80 meters. The best hole, 18DRRC010, cut 33.52 meters averaging 5.76 g/t gold and 128.65 g/t silver from surface, including 3.05 meters of 52.02 g/t gold and 846.44 g/t silver from 10.67 meters.

Hole 18DRRC011, which cut 45.72 meters of 0.8 g/t gold and 32.95 g/t silver, including 1.52 meters of 6.38 g/t gold and 238 g/t silver, is more typical of the mineralization drilled last year at Dukes Ridge.

"The new drill results provide bulk tonnage drill intercepts that envelope high-grade gold-silver veins from surface. These results will significantly expand the overall size of the Dukes Ridge Zone that remains open for additional step-out drilling in 2019," said Benchmark Minerals CEO John Williamson. "This, in combination with results of previous and planned drilling at the Cliff Creek, Dukes Ridge and Phoenix mineralized zones, is leading to a significant increase in the existing estimate of mineral resources at the Lawyers project."

Benchmark said there are geological indicators of the potential to extend Dukes Ridge up to 600 meters northwest to the Cliff Creek zone, where drilling in 2015 cut 36.5 meters of 2.68 g/t gold and 36.5 g/t silver. A grab sample collected about halfway between Dukes Ridge and Cliff Creek contained 23.1 g/t gold and 5,370 g/t silver.

In addition to expanding Dukes Ridge to the northwest, Benchmark said the zone has potential for a 100-meter southeastern extension connecting it with the Phoenix zone, where one hole drilled last year cut 3.95 meters of 11 g/t gold and 819 g/t silver. In turn, Phoenix is open to expansion for at least 600 meters further southeast where several grab samples returned robust mineralization, including one sample with 3.4 g/t gold and 131 g/t silver.

"Previously described as discreet mineralized zones, evidence is growing to suggest that these zones may be interconnected with continuous mineralization over a plus-three-kilometer strike length, representing the heart of a mineral resource with significant potential for expansion along the major northwest-southeast oriented Lawyers Trend," Williamson said.

In addition to the Lawyers property, Benchmark Minerals, previously known as Crystal Exploration Inc., holds two diamond exploration projects – Muskox and Hood River – and one diamond-gold project – Contwoyto – in Nunavut.

–SHANE LASLEY