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

Benchmark Metals Inc. Nov. 4 reported the discovery of significant new mineralized zones that may develop into future satellite deposits along a 20-kilometer- (12.4 miles) long mineralized trend on its Lawyers gold-silver project in Northern British Columbia.

"As we continue to systematically explore our highly prospective 140-square-kilometer (54 square miles) land position with comprehensive geological mapping, soil and rock sampling, ground and airborne geophysics, and exploration drilling, we continue to add new zones that share the same characteristics as the resource areas in the heart of the property," said Benchmark Metals CEO John Williamson.

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

This historical mining, carried out by Cheni Gold Mines, included production from the Cliffs Creek, Phoenix, and AGB zones.

The deposits were never fully mined, or the surrounding area thoroughly explored, and Benchmark has identified additional high-grade and bulk tonnage gold-silver targets within the central area of Lawyers trend, a more than 20-kilometer- (12.4 miles) long prospective corridor that runs across the property.

These historically mined areas have been the primary target of a 2020 drill program that has surpassed 75,000 meter and is expected to top out at 90,000 to 100,000 meters by the end of the year.

Results from this drilling will be incorporated into a resource calculation slated for completion early in 2021.

In addition to drilling, to build a resource at the three main Lawyers zones, Benchmark has completed initial drill programs at two new advanced exploration targets – Marmot and Silver Pond.

Marmot is a highly prospective target that covers a 2,000- by 3,000-meter area where grab samples with up to 61.3 g/t gold and 3,890 g/t silver have been collected. Benchmark drilled an initial five holes at this discovery target about 2,500 meters southeast of Cliff Creek.

Benchmarks says Silver Pond, a four-square-kilometer (1.5 square miles) alteration zone about 1,500 meters northwest of Cliff Creek, shows large-scale zonation patterns and metal associations indicative of high-sulfidation or porphyry mineralization. Detailed mapping has linked the alteration at Silver Pond to large-scale fault zones that may have provided a conduit for the mineralizing fluids.

The company says a 3D induced polarization geophysical survey correlated exceptionally well with the mapping and was able to image deep in the subsurface, below the lithocap alteration, providing refined drill targets for the 3,914 meters of drilling completed in nine holes this year.

Assay results from the drilling at Marmot and Silver Pond are pending but Benchmark is already planning to continue testing the precious and base metals potential of these targets with 200,000 meters of drilling the company plans to complete at Lawyers in 2021.

This year's sampling, mapping, and prospecting has also turned up two new zones – LaLa, which is about 3,000 meters south of Cliff Creek, and Gifford's Edge, which is southeast of Phoenix.

Benchmark Metals Inc.

Benchmark says high-grade rock samples collected along a northwest-southeast trend at LaLa suggests extensions of the Marmot mineralization about 1,250 meters to the southeast, where northwest-trending structures that control mineralization, quartz veining and alteration have been observed. Additionally, north-northeast at LaLa hosts fine-grained sulfide mineralization where bedrock grab samples returned up to 8.22 g/t gold and 897 g/t. Benchmarks says much of the area between LaLa and Marmot is covered by a large drainage that possibly obscures the full extent of a trend connecting them.

The Gifford's Edge occurrence lies about 1,000 meters north of the Marmot East soil anomaly, which trends into a 250- by 250-meter soil anomaly at Gifford's Edge. Rock grab samples collected returned up to 27.9 g/t gold and 378 g/t silver.

Benchmark is carrying out early-stage work to ready LaLa and Gifford's Edge for drilling in 2021.

"The potential of the 20-kilometer Lawyers Trend has grown well beyond what was identified by the historic Cheni Mine into an emerging district-scale gold and silver exploration region," Williamson said.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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