Plans To Accelerate 50,000m Exploration Campaign
Benz Mining Corp. (TSXV: BZ) (ASX: BNZ) now has a second drill rig in operation at the Eastmain project in Quebec after delays mostly due to COVID-19 restrictions in Canada and rig and driller availability pressure from increased winter drilling activities in the country over the first quarter of 2021.
CEO, Xavier Braud, said the second rig will help the company accelerate its efforts at Eastmain but, more importantly, it will allow it more flexibility to balance its drilling between extensional, infill, step-out and regional drilling.
“We still have multiple untested and undertested targets from our 2020 fixed loop and down-hole electromagnetic surveys and we are still generating more targets,” Mr Braud said.
“Additionally, several new discoveries we made last year need follow up. We have recently completed the acquisition of 56 line-km of fixed loop EM and we are looking forward to updating the market on those surveys shortly.
“The pressure on laboratories and services companies means that we have had to wait longer than expected to get results but we believe that we can restart the news flow from Eastmain where we have been incredibly active since January.
“We are well on track to continue growing the footprint of the Eastmain project in line with the discovery rate we have had for the past 12 months.”
Since January, Benz has been drilling conductors identified by the 2020 fixed loop and downhole electromagnetic surveys as well as targets from the ongoing systematic DHEM surveying of all completed holes.
Two new large regional fixed loop electromagnetic surveys have been recently completed and Benz will update the market as soon as processing and interpretation are completed and available.
All of the laboratory rejects (the fraction of samples unused in the assays process) from the 2020 drilling campaign have been sent to Australia to be analysed by PhotonAssay.
Mr Braud said this assay method is non-destructive and is better suited to systems where gold is nuggetty (in coarse gold particles). There are multiple occurrences of coarse gold at Eastmain. This innovative analytical methodology is an environmentally friendly replacement for fire assay and allows for a more accurate measurement of gold grades where coarse gold is present.
This technology is not yet available in North America.
Shipping was affected by lockdown measures in place in Canada as well as industrial action at the port of Montreal.
Samples are now in transit and have been booked in the laboratory schedule to be analysed shortly after delivery.
