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

Benchmark Metals Inc. Jan. 4 announced plans for up to a C$30 million 2021 exploration and drilling program focused on advancing its road accessible Lawyers gold-silver project in northcentral British Columbia toward feasibility.

Toward this goal, the company completed 87,298 meters of drilling in 388 holes during 2020. Results from the drilling, which are still rolling in, will be incorporated into a new resource estimate for Lawyers in the first quarter and a preliminary economic assessment by mid-year.

"The company has released significant positive results with the majority of drill sample assays pending from the lab. Results are expected over the coming weeks and will continue to be released until the end of February 2021," 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.

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.

The company sees the potential of building a 5-million-oz gold-equivalent resource in four zones it has identified in the central portion of the Lawyers trend – Cliffs Creek, Dukes Ridge, Phoenix, and AGB.

The 2020 drilling has expanded mineralization and shown strong continuity at the Cliff Creek zone, Dukes Ridge to Phoenix zone, and the AGB zone, all of which will contribute towards a new mineral resource estimate.

With five drills turning, this expansive program began at Cliff Creek, a 1,200-meter-long bulk tonnage target that is believed to host up to 1.4 million oz of gold and 44.4 million oz of silver in mineralization averaging around 1.3 grams per metric ton gold and 40 g/t silver, according to modelling.

During the 2020 season, Benchmark completed 54,101 meters of drilling at Cliffs Creek in 162 holes. The company says this drilling has intersected visual mineralization to depths of more than 550 vertical meters, extending the depth of known mineralization by more than 250 meters.

Some highlights from the assay results received so far from this drilling include:

• 57.9 meters averaging 1.9 g/t gold and 92 g/t silver in hole 20CCRC003.

• 45.9 meters averaging 1.17 g/t gold and 30 g/t silver in 20CCDD015.

• 221.5 meters averaging 0.82 g/t gold and 15 g/t silver in 20CCDD024.

• 128.1 meters averaging 1.65 g/t gold and 110 g/t silver in 20CCDD028.

• 15 meters averaging 7.02 g/t gold and 308 g/t silver in 20CCDD070.

The results from 41 holes drilled by Benchmark during the 2018 and 2019 season, and 91 historical holes will be included in the new resource for the Cliffs Creek deposit area.

The 2020 drill program also included 15,484 meters of drilling in 79 holes at AGB, a Lawyers Trend deposit northeast of Cliffs Creek. Benchmark says this drilling has expanded gold-silver mineralization at AGB to the west and shows continuity over more than 600 meters along strike and to a depth of 270 meters.

Results have included broad bulk-tonnage zones, higher-grade bulk tonnage zones and high-grade zones. Some highlighted intercepts from results received so far include:

• 91.4 meters averaging 0.65 g/t gold and 25 g/t silver in 20AGBDD002.

• 14.2 meters averaging 4.15 g/t gold and 61 g/t silver in 20AGBDD003.

• 3.8 meters averaging 11.76 g/t gold and 631 g/t silver in 20AGBDD004.

At Dukes Ridge-Phoenix, which is immediately northeast of Cliffs Creek, Benchmark completed 10,602 meters of drilling in 68 holes during the 2020 season. This drilling has expanded the gold-silver mineralization at this zone to at least 830 meters along strike and a depth of 200 meters.

Drilling also confirmed the structural model, which suggests extension of high-grade mineralization at deeper intersecting structures. The company said this will allow for strategic and deeper drill targeting at Dukes Ridge-Phoenix during 2021.

In addition to resource expansion drilling at the main Lawyers zones, Benchmark 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 lithocap alteration, providing refined drill targets for the 3,914 meters of drilling completed in nine holes in 2020.

Benchmark Metals Inc.

Even before assay results from Marmot and Silver Pond had come back from the labs, Benchmark was planning to continue testing the precious and base metals potential with a very large drill program slated for Lawyers in 2021.

With the C$50.3 million raised last year, Benchmark is well funded to complete this aggressive drill program and other work slated for this year and next as the company works towards a feasibility study and the permitting steps to a mining decision.

"The company anticipates a fully funded $25-30 million 2021 exploration and drilling program to move the project towards feasibility," said Williamson. "Benchmark's opportunity for growth is unparalleled as we enter a mining cycle where gold and silver producers require new, large mines to feed diminishing gold-silver supplies."

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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