Robust drilling to target Lawyers growth

Benchmark Metals Inc. April 22 announced it plans to complete 14,000 to 25,000 meters of drilling during the 2019 exploration program at the Lawyers gold-silver project in northern 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.

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

A resource calculated last year for Benchmark 550,000 metric tons of inferred resource at Cliffs Creek averaging 4.51 grams per metric ton (80,000 ounces) gold and 209.2 g/t (3.7 million oz) silver; and 58,000 metric tons of inferred resource at Dukes Ridge averaging 4.3 g/t (8,000 oz) gold and 139.1 g/t (260,000 oz) silver.

Benchmark said roughly 75 percent of this year's program will focus on infill, step-out and deeper drilling to expand the Cliff Creek and Dukes Ridge resources, as well as establish new resources at the Phoenix and AGB zones.

Resource expansion drilling will target both high-grade and bulk-tonnage areas that have generated significant results including 2.4 meters of 87 g/t gold and 2,407 g/t silver in a 2015 hole drilled at Cliff Creek and 33.52 meters of 5.76 g/t gold and 128.65 g/t silver in a 2010 hole drilled at Dukes Ridge.

"Lawyers is a large, road accessible property with anomalous gold and silver at surface across a plus-20-kilometer (12.5 miles) trend," said Michael Dufresne, geologist and director for Benchmark Metals. "The 2018 program of in-fill sampling and initial drilling at the Lawyers Trend validated historical data and provided significant expansion results that are not included within the current mineral resource estimates. The 2018 results combined with follow-up drilling during 2019 will lead to a significant increase in the existing mineral resources at the Lawyers project."

The balance of this year's drilling will test large geophysical and surface geochemical anomalies that are similar to areas of known mineralization. Benchmark said these large geophysical anomalies are potential extensions of the Cliff Creek, Dukes Ridge and Phoenix zones that provided bulk-tonnage and high-grade results during drilling carried out by the company in 2018.

"After a thorough review of 2018 drilling and historical results that included infill sampling of previous drilling campaigns, we believe the Lawyers Trend has potential for near 5 million gold-equivalent ounces," said Benchmark Metals CEO John Williamson. "The 2018 program expanded the Cliff Creek Zone to over 550 meter and the Dukes Ridge Zone to over 700-meter strike lengths, and mineralization remains open in all directions. In addition, we have generated over six new large targets for drill testing."

In addition to drilling, the 2019 exploration program at Lawyers is slated to include the collection of 2,000 to 3,500 soil samples and 600 to 1,000 rock samples, as well as mapping and ground geophysics.

The 2019 fieldwork at Lawyers is slated to begin in mid-June.

–SHANE LASLEY