The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Including near-surface mineralization near historical mine North of 60 Mining News – January 14, 2022
Benchmark Metals Inc. Jan. 12 reported strong gold and silver mineralization from infill and expansion drilling at the AGB deposit on the company's Lawyers project in Northern British Columbia.
According to a calculation published in May, the Cliff Creek, AGB, and Dukes Ridge deposits at Lawyers host 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.
Of this larger resource calculated early in 2021, AGB hosts 7.3 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.27 g/t (300,000 oz) gold and 45.5 g/t (10.7 million oz) silver, plus 1.1 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.13 g/t (41,000 oz) gold and 33 g/t (1.2 million oz) silver.
During 2021, Benchmark completed 16,709 meters of drilling in 81 holes to upgrade and expand the AGB resource.
The latest batch of assay results are from 22 holes drilled at AGB; highlights include:
• 32.85 meters averaging 1.5 g/t gold and 3.1 g/t silver from a depth of 193 meters in hole 21AGBDD015.
• 24 meters averaging 1.58 g/t gold and 40.8 g/t silver from a depth of 210 meters in hole 21AGBDD032.
• 41 meters averaging 1.88 g/t gold and 122.6 g/t silver from a depth of 112 meters in hole 21AGBDD039.
• 95.55 meters averaging 3.14 g/t gold and 59.85 g/t silver from a depth of 2.45 meters in hole 21AGBDD045.
The strong gold-silver mineralization in holes 21AGBDD039 and 21AGBDD045 was encountered on the eastern flank of the central AGB deposit, providing additional higher-grade gold and silver mineralization around stopes from relatively small-scale mining carried out at the deposit over a four-year span that began in 1989. Benchmark says these results near the historical mine workings emphasize the significant near-surface high-grade mineralization that remains at AGB, with the potential to expand the deposit to the east and to depth.
Overall, the 2021 drilling at AGB is outlining the potential to add near-surface, open-pittable gold and silver to the resource, in addition to defining an emerging broad zone of strong mineralization at the southern end of the more than 650-meter-long deposit.
"Drilling at the AGB deposit continues to return significant gold and silver intercepts at the surface and to depth," said Benchmark Metals CEO John Williamson. "Areas around the historical stopes provide high-grade gold and silver that are all within 200 vertical meters from the surface. New drilling is providing the potential to add significant gold-silver ounces in an area where mineralization begins at surface."
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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