Benchmark Metals (BNCH.V) released an updated resource estimate on its flagship Lawyers project in British Columbia. The project consists of three mineralized deposits along a 20 kilometer trend. The updated resource estimate contains the data from 200,000 meters of drilling in almost 1,100 holes and according to the company, it is one of the highest grade open pittable deposits in North America.
And indeed, looking at the in-pit resource, the main deposits Cliffs Creek and AGB currently contain a total of 2.6 million ounces of gold and just under 50 million ounces of silver in the measured and indicated categories with an additional 73,000 ounces of gold and 1 million ounces of silver in the inferred resource category. The measured and indicated resource has an average grade of 1.22 g/t gold and 23.45 g/t silver.
On top of the in-pit resource, the company also released a resource outside these pit limitations using a cutoff grade of 1.5 g/t gold-equivalent. That resource contains 177,000 ounces gold-equivalent in the M&I and an additional 337,000 ounces of gold in the inferred resource category at an average grade of 3.54 g/t AuEq and 4.06 g/t AuEq respectively.
Although the very vast majority of the in-pit resource is in the measured and indicated resource category, there appears to be upside exploration potential as the deposits remain open (mainly at depth) and new targets have been identified in the same mineralized corridor. So it will be interesting to see if additional ounces could be added to the underground resource.
The sensitivity analysis of the resource also contains a few interesting elements: using a cutoff grade of 0.3 g/t AuEq actually results in a higher gold grade than using a 0.35 g/t cutoff grade although this also includes the underground resources.
It’s a pity the company hasn’t updated its corporate presentation despite having released the updated resource estimate four weeks ago.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Benchmark Metals. Please read our disclaimer.
