Benchmark Metals Inc has told investors that it is rapidly progressing technical and permitting work to advance its flagship Lawyers Gold-Silver project, located in the prolific Golden Horseshoe of northern British Columbia.
The Canadian company said it is “near completing” an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for delivery in May this year. In addition, considerable work has been completed to generate the company's maiden engineering and economic study.
Moreover, the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) is anticipated in June this year and will focus on open-pitable resources derived from the updated MRE.
In a corporate update, Benchmark said it has already completed over 18,000 metres (m) of drilling, a significant portion of which will be included in the updated MRE and PEA. In addition, a portion of the drilling has focused on geotechnical work towards infrastructure areas, noted the company.
In a statement, Benchmark CEO John Williamson said: “Work over the past year has focused on delivering a larger updated Resource Estimate with the majority of ounces in the measured and indicated category. Recent drilling has outlined multiple core zones of higher-grade gold and silver at surface to deliver higher impact ounces.”
He added: “This work is to support a PEA that should demonstrate robust metrics. The new milestones will be provided during May and June, delivering significant value in the near future.”
Williamson said he was confident the new Resource and Economic Study will “validate the project as a world-class mining endeavour” and support engineering and environmental work to “fast track the project to a construction decision, in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction."
Updated mineral resource estimate
The MRE is pending with most ounces to be classified in the Measured and Indicated category due to tight drill spacing, said the company. This has resulted in considerable de-risking of the project, providing more potential for mineable mineralization near-surface, added the firm.
The new updated MRE will provide a mineral resource suitable for use in a Feasibility Study for the first quarter of 2023. Recent drilling in 2021 and 2022 has focused on providing higher-grade core zones of mineralization that are near-surface that could provide material for the initial start-up years' of mining.
Preliminary economic assessment
The company said that recent metallurgical test-work reconfirmed industry standard processing flowsheet with gold achieving 93% recovery. Benchmark has received initial geochemistry static test work for environmental analysis of waste rock and ore rock. To date, ore and waste analysis show insignificant and benign impacts to the environment.
Most of the engineering work is completed, pending the updated MRE for optimization of the mine plan and schedule, said the company. The PEA mine schedule will include two near surface core zones of higher-grade gold and silver mineralization. The core zones and initial starter pit areas have the potential to positively impact the opening years of mining in the PEA, noted the company.
Feasibility study
Benchmark said that most of the engineering tasks to support development of the Feasbility Study are in progress or complete. Significant outstanding activities include on-going geotechnical works for major infrastructure, and geochemical test work. Additional work has focused on mine optimization.
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