Benz is earning a 100% interest in the Eastmain mine from Fury Gold Mines (TSX: FURY; NYSE: FURY), a spinout of Auryn (TSX: AUG) after that company acquired Eastmain Resources last year.
The Eastmain deposit was discovered by Placer Development in 1969 and put into production on a small scale from 1990 to 1995. Mining was suspended due to the sagging gold price. Under Quebec’s Plan Nord, a road to the mine site was completed in 2016, and interest revived in the property culminating in Benz’ option in 2019.
This year’s drilling program is 50,000 metres to follow up on recommendations in the 43-101 commissioned by Benz in 2019. At the time, 899,000 indicated tonnes grading 8.19 g/t gold, 8.0 g/t silver, and 0.13% copper as well as 579,000 inferred tonnes grading 7.48 g/t gold, 8.2 g/t silver and 0.16% copper were estimated.
The North West zone is being drilled for the first time. Some of the highlights from that zone include intersections of 3 metres grading 16.6 gold, including 1.5 metre at 32.8 g/t; 7.8 metres at 8.7 g/t gold, including 1 metre at 32.6 g/t; 6 metres at 3.6 g/t gold, including 1 metre at 10.2 g/t; 3 metres at 5.2 g/t gold, including 1 metre at 15 g/t; and 6.6 metres of 3.1 g/t gold.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
