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

Benchmark Metals Inc. May 26 announced that it is mobilizing a crew to launch a planned 100,000-meter drill program at its road-accessible Lawyers gold-silver project in Northern British Columbia.

Earlier this month, Benchmark published its initial resource estimate for Lawyers. According to this new calculation, the Cliff Creek, AGB, Dukes Ridge and Phoenix zones at Lawyers hosts 40.3 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.19 grams per metric ton (1.55 million ounces) gold and 38.7 g/t (50.2 million oz) silver; plus 16.2 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.19 g/t (620,000 oz) gold and 34.7 g/t (18.1 million oz) silver.

"This initial multi-million-ounce mineral resource has exceeded all expectations and has significant expansion potential with the planned 2021 drill program," said Benchmark Metals CEO John Williamson.

Roughly 50,000 meters of the 2021 drilling will be focused on expanding and upgrading these resources, with the balance testing new targets across the wider Lawyers property.

The discovery targets to be drilled this year include Marmot, Marmot East, Lala, Gifford's Edge, M-Grid, and Silver Pond – all in close proximity to the zones included in the resource estimate.

In addition to this aggressive drilling, the 2021 program will include engineering, geotechnical, and environmental baseline studies needed to advance the gold-silver project toward feasibility and permitting.

A preliminary economic assessment that provides an initial glimpse of a Lawyers mine plan based on the current resource is slated for completion in August of this year.

Benchmark Metals Inc.

"The resilience of the mineral resource at a wide range of cut-off grades in all pits bodes well for the upcoming preliminary economic assessment and is expected to provide multiple routes to successful project design," said Benchmark Metals Vice President of Engineering Ian Harris. "Benchmark's drill-to-build philosophy is delivering the results to develop the Lawyers project into a world-class gold-silver mine."

A feasibility study based on an upgraded and expanded resource estimate that includes the results from this year's drilling is expected sometime in 2022.

With roughly C$32 million in its treasury, Benchmark is fully funded to carry out all of the objectives of its 2021 program at Lawyers.

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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