THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 13, 2015) - Benton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BEX) ("Benton" or the "Company") announces that the Company has applied for regulatory approval for a Normal Course Issuer Bid (the "Bid") to purchase, through the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange, up to 5,000,000 shares of its issued and outstanding common shares. The actual number of shares that may be purchased and the timing of such purchases will be determined by Benton and purchases pursuant to the Bid will be conducted through BMO Nesbitt Burns. The Company currently has approximately $6.0 million in combined cash and investments but a market capitalization of only $2.3 million (based on the March 12, 2014 closing market price). In addition to the large discount to its cash and investments, the Company has an excellent portfolio of projects including the advanced Cape Ray gold deposits currently being advanced by Nordmin Engineering (see PR dated January 20, 2015), the Mealy Cu-Ni-PGM project being operated by Platinum Group Metals (see PR dated November 6, 2015) and the recently announced option of the Abernethy Gold project to Element 79 Capital Inc. (see P.R dated February 25, 2015) along with other 100%-owned prospective exploration projects which can be viewed on the Company's web site.
President and CEO Stephen Stares stated "it is extremely frustrating to see our company have such a discounted market capitalization relative to our net asset value while we've preserved cash, generated new deals and have a great portfolio of projects. With a new NI 43-101 resource estimate for the high grade Cape Ray deposits just around the corner and the potential at the Mealy and Abernethy projects, which is being carried by our partners, we believe this will be an exciting year for the company and our shareholders as we progress ahead through these difficult market conditions