- Targeting a 5 million ounce gold equivalent target
- Company says it is financed to a mining decision
- Working in a proven and profitable mining jurisdiction
What Benchmark Metals does:
Benchmark Metals Inc (CVE:BNCH) (OTCQB:CYRTF) is advancing the "substantial" resource potential of the formerly producing Lawyers gold and silver project, which it acquired in 2018, and which lies in the prolific Golden Horseshoe area of British Columbia.
Exploration in the Toodoggone district, where the project sits, began in the late 1960s and identified numerous showings, prospects, and deposits in the Lawyers project area.
But the company says previous work has ignored the bulk tonnage and porphyry potential of the property.
The Cheni gold-silver mine operated there for four years from 1989 to 1992, exploiting high-grade underground workings and produced 171,200 ounces of gold and 3.6 million ounces of silver, when the gold price was just US$300 an ounce and silver stood at US$7 per ounce.
Benchmark has attracted the likes of renowned Canadian resource investor Eric Sprott, who is the group's largest shareholder with around 20% of the capital..
How is it doing:
In 2020, Benchmark completed 87,298 meters (m) in 388 holes and among the highlights was a new discovery at the so-called Marmot Zone (which, the firm says, could be a Cliff Creek look-alike) with the potential for more new discoveries in 2021 across more than six target areas.
In addition, metallurgical tests supported conventional recovery of gold and silver at Lawyers with exceptional rates of up to 98% gold and 97% silver.
Significantly, in May this year, the group delivered an initial resource for the project, which 'exceeded' expectations and set the project up to be a potential world-class gold silver mine, using 696 drill holes for over 123,000 metres (m) collectively from the Cliff Creek, AGB, Dukes Ridge and Phoenix Zones.
The resource, it revealed, was amenable to both open pit and underground mining and hosts 2.1 million ounces at 1.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent in the higher confidence indicated category.
In inferred, it holds 821,000 ounces grading 1.58 g/t gold-equivalent. The indicated pit constrained resource is 2.05 million ounces (M oz) gold-equivalent, while inferred is 595,000 ounces of gold-equivalent.
The new resource will form the basis of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) expected to be completed in late 2Q, 2021, said Benchmark.
In June, the company said it had started its property-wide exploration program for 2021, which was to include up to 50,000 metres (m) of exploratory diamond drilling including Marmot, Marmot East, Lala, Silver Pond, Guilfords Edge, and a number of new targets.
And on July 8, Benchmark outlined this year's exploration plans for the Marmot and Marmot East discoveries, saying the proposed work included around 10,000 metres (m) of exploration drilling at Marmot and around 2,500m at Marmot East along with 34.8 line-kilometres of induced polarization (IP) geophysics.
There will also be extensive surface sampling and geological mapping and an airborne survey spanning the southern half of the project to identify anomalies that could be associated with porphyry and epithermal mineralization, said the company.
As reported in January 2021, four holes at Marmot returned 'significant' near-surface results, including an interval of 101m showing 0.82 grams per tonne (g/t) gold-equivalent (AuEq).
The company also noted that the controls on mineralization at Marmot were found to be similar to those at Cliff Creek, where Benchmark has already defined a bulk-tonnage target in the range of 1.68 to 1.92 Moz of gold equivalent.
In late June, it told investors that the Government of British Columbia had granted a new five-year work permit for exploration and drilling to advance the property.
The new work permit encompasses an expanded scope and scale to explore existing and new targets across the project area, it said.
Inflection points:
- More exploration results
- Publication of a preliminary economic assessmemt (PEA)
- Precious metals price moves
What the boss says:
"Benchmark is seeing near-term potential for significant expansion of gold-silver ounces with the combination of drilling to expand the existing deposits and drilling to define brand new discoveries. The Marmot targets have significant potential to generate gold and silver ounces of the same scope and scale as the Cliff Creek deposit. The Marmot and other new targets are all road accessible with mineralization at surface," said CEO John Williamson in the latest statement about the exploration plan for the Marmot and Marmot East discoveries.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com