The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drilling continues to confirm bulk tonnage and high grades North of 60 Mining News – February 5, 2021
A technician logs core from a hole drilled at AGB, one of four primary zones along a more than 20-kilometer- (12.4 miles) long trend of high-grade and bulk tonnage gold-silver mineralization on Benchmark Metals' Lawyers project in BC.
ABB was the target of 15,484 meters of drilling in 79 of the holes during Benchmark's 2020 program at the Lawyers gold-silver project.
Benchmark Metals Inc. Feb. 3 reported that bulk tonnage and high-grade gold intercepts in the southern portion of Cliff Creek has expanded the length of this deposit area on the company's Lawyers project in northcentral British Columbia to more than 1,200 meters.
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, the Lawyers property covers a more than 20-kilometer- (12.4 miles) long trend of both high-grade and bulk tonnage gold-silver targets.
Benchmark sees the potential of building a 5-million-oz gold-equivalent resource in the four primary zones it has identified in the central portion of the Lawyers trend – Cliff Creek, Dukes Ridge, Phoenix, and AGB.
Toward this target, the company completed 87,298 meters of drilling in 388 holes at Lawyers during 2020, including 54,101 meters in 162 holes at Cliff Creek.
Highlights from previously released holes drilled at Cliff Creek include:
• 57.9 meters averaging 1.9 grams per metric ton gold and 92 g/t silver in hole 20CCRC003.
• 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 latest batch of results is from the southern portion of the Cliff Creek deposit area, a subzone referred to as Cliff Creek South, or CCS.
Drilling in this area has cut broad zones of bulk tonnage mineralization, such as 124 meters averaging 0.63 g/t gold and 11.5 g/t silver in hole 20CCDD025; and shorter but higher-grade bulk tonnage zones, such as 64 meters averaging 2.29 g/t gold and 191.3 g/t silver in hole 20CCDD055.
A 10.4-meter high-grade subsection of the intercept in hole 20CCDD055 averaged 5.02 g/t gold and 714.1 g/t silver.
Benchmark says assays are pending from an additional 15 holes drilled at CCS, four of which contained visible gold and silver mineralization.
"The CCS zone is yielding long intercepts of gold and silver mineralization over a strike length of 300 meters and at least 350 meters depth and remains open. This sub-section of the Cliff Creek deposit should enhance gold-silver tonnages and grade in the upcoming 2021 Cliff Creek resource estimate," said Benchmark Metals CEO John Williamson. "The CCS zone is showing impressive tonnage and grade potential that mirrors the Cliff Creek North zone. The total size of the Cliff Creek deposit has increased to plus-1.2 kilometers strike length and at least 550 meters in depth and is open."
Benchmark also recently released drill results from AGB, a deposit area about 2,500 meters northeast of Cliff Creek.
AGB was the target of 15,484 meters of drilling in 79 of the holes drilled last year at Lawyers.
Benchmark says this drilling has expanded gold-silver mineralization at AGB to the west and shows continuity over more than 650 meters along strike and to a depth of 270 meters.
Much like Cliff Creek, the 2020 drilling at AGB has encountered broad bulk-tonnage zones, higher-grade bulk tonnage zones and high-grade zones. Some highlighted intercepts from previously released 2020 assay results 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.
The latest round of results from AGB include:
• 35.2 meters averaging 2.22 g/t gold and 75.4 g/t silver in 20AGBDD007.
• 69.5 meters averaging 1.76 g/t gold and 119.5 g/t silver in 20AGBDD019.
• 4.8 meters averaging 7.96 g/t gold and 345.2 g/t silver in 20AGBDD021.
• 4.7 meters averaging 3.15 g/t gold and 711.3 g/t silver in 20AGBDD024.
"Results at AGB are providing indications for bulk-tonnage mining, yielding higher grade gold and silver compared to the neighboring Cliffs Creek and Dukes Ridge zones. The majority of drilling to date has encountered significant near surface, shallow gold-silver mineralization that remains open in all directions for expansion," said Williamson. "This zone saw a small amount of underground mining plus-30 years ago, but the new results are showing potential for an open pit mining scenario."
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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