Benchmark drills ‘excellent grades’ at Lawyers project in BC

Benchmark Metals’ (TSXV: BNCH; US-OTC: CYRTF) latest results from drilling the Cliff Creek zone at its Lawyers project in B.C.’s Golden Horseshoe region, includes 31 metres of 2.98 grams gold per tonne and 72.77 grams silver per tonne, or 3.89 grams gold-equivalent.

Hole 20CCDD011, which returned the 31-metre section starting at 20 metres downhole, hit three discrete mineralized zones. The hole also cut 6 metres of 6.95 grams gold and 280.67 grams silver (10.45 grams gold-equivalent) at a depth of 65 metres; and 13 metres of 2.2 grams gold and 67.23 grams silver (3.04 grams gold equivalent) starting at a depth of 141 metres.

“Seeing these early results from Cliff Creek highlights our belief in the underexplored nature of the area where multiple, discrete zones occur within the same hole,” Benchmark CEO John Williamson said in a news release.

“Hole 20CCDD011 is essentially mineralized from top to bottom including excellent grades and widths in the Main and East zones. The high-grade near-surface mineralization helps considerably with the economic potential during the first few years of a potential mining scenario.”

So far this year, Benchmark has completed 195 holes totalling 40,000 metres out of a planned 100,000-metre campaign at Lawyers.

Other highlights from Cliff Creek include: 13 metres of 3.64 grams gold and 130.4 grams silver (5.2 grams gold-equivalent) starting at a depth of 261 metres in hole 005; 1 metre of 23.16 grams gold and 1,012 grams silver (35.82 grams gold-equivalent) starting at 269 metres in hole 005; and 14 metres of 2.57 grams gold and 114.24 grams silver (4 grams gold-equivalent) starting at 45 metres in hole 001.

The company notes that drilling at Cliff Creek – the largest zone at the 140-sq.-km Lawyers property – returned significant quantities of silver, with a consistent 40-1 silver to gold ratio.

In 2018, Benchmark released an initial inferred resource for the Cliff Creek North and Dukes Ridge zones at Lawyers. At a cutoff grade of 4 grams gold-equivalent, Cliff Creek North hosts 550,000 tonnes grading 4.51 grams gold and 209.15 grams silver. Dukes Ridge adds another 58,000 tonnes at 4.3 grams gold and 139.13 grams silver.

— This article first appeared in The Canadian Mining Journal.