Benchmark Discovers a Trove of Unsampled Historic Drill Core From Zones Including Assays of 87g/t Gold & 2,407g/t Silver Over 2.4m

EDMONTON, Alberta, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Benchmark Metals Inc. (the “Company” or “Benchmark”) (TSX-V: BNCH) (OTCQB: CYRTF) (GER: A2JM2X) (FKT: A7CA) is pleased to announce that 1,051 meters of newly sampled historical drill core has been sent to the laboratory for assays from the Lawyers Gold & Silver Project, located in the Golden Triangle region of British Columbia, Canada.

CEO John Williamson commented, “Upon examination of historical drill core from the Lawyers Project, we have discovered 1,000 meters of mineralized core that were never sampled. From this material, we have sampled some holes from top to bottom, while others have been sampled on the shoulders, above and below historical high-grade intersections. As an example, we have sampled an extra 197 meters of core from drill hole CC15-15, which had previously returned an intersection of 87g/t gold and 2,407g/t silver over 2.4m, but this was never followed up with complete shoulder sampling. The potential to increase the grade-width of the gold-silver mineralized zones from the historical drilling is high. This additional sampling has the potential to increase the initial resource estimate reported early in 2018.”

Cliff Creek Zone & Dukes Ridge Resampling
All resampled holes were from 2015 core at the Cliff Creek Zone and Duke’s Ridge Zone.

Cliff Creek hosts an estimated inferred mineral resource of 550,000 tonnes grading 4.51 g/t Au and 209.15 g/t Ag at a 4.0 g/t gold equivalent (“AuEQ”) lower cut-off, which equates to a contained metal resource of 80,000 troy oz. gold and 3,700,000 oz. of silver. 

Duke’s Ridge hosts an inferred mineral resource of 58,000 tonnes grading 4.30 g/t Au and 139.13 g/t Ag (at a 4.0 g/t AuEQ lower cut-off), which equates to a contained metal resource of 8,000 oz. of gold and 260,000 oz. of silver.

Historical drilling from Cliff Creek includes:  

• DDH-CC15-15: 293.40g/t gold and 7,622g/t silver over 0.70m;
• DDH-CC15-13: 1.71 g/t gold and 41.5 g/t silver over 51.99m;
• DDH CC15-15 (P2 vein): 87 g/t gold & 2,407 g/t silver over 2.4m;
• DDH CC15-06: 9.64 g/t gold & 307 g/t silver over 8.63m; and
• DDH CC15-12: 9.75 g/t gold & 447 g/t silver over 4.86m.  

Resampling Table - The table below represents all new samples collected from drill core at the Cliff Creek and Duke’s Ridge zones.

Lawyers Gold and Silver Project
The Lawyers Property and formerly producing Cheni Gold and Silver Mine is located 45 km northwest of the Kemess Gold and Copper Mine. The Property contains an existing Mineral Resource and hosts a minimum of 16 existing gold and silver occurrences that were never fully mined, developed or explored. Work during the 2018 exploration program has focused on mineralized zones with exposure at surface.  Each zone remains open at strike, width and depth, extending across hundreds of meters.  The 99km² prospective land package presents a unique opportunity for Benchmark to carry out exploration on a ‘camp’ scale. There remains excellent potential for the discovery of additional low and high-sulphidation epithermal precious metal deposits like those that have been discovered and explored to date in the Golden Triangle region.  In addition, there exists the possibility for the discovery of near-surface or buried ‘bulk tonnage’ deposits which may offer the advantage of economies of scale should future mine development occur.

Images can be viewed at the Benchmark website.

Quality Assurance and Control
Results from samples was analyzed at ALS Global Laboratories (Geochemistry Division) in Vancouver, Canada (an ISO 9001:2008 accredited facility). The sampling program was undertaken by Company personnel under the direction of Rob L’Heureux, P.Geol. A secure chain of custody is maintained in transporting and storing of all samples. Gold was assayed using a fire assay with atomic emission spectrometry and gravimetric finish when required (+10g/t Au). Analysis by four acid digestion with 48 element ICP-MS analysis was conducted on all samples with silver and base metal overlimits re-analyzed by atomic absorption or emission spectrometry. Rock chip samples from outcrop/bedrock are selective by nature and they may not be representative of the mineralization hosted on the project.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Dufresne, M.Sc, P.Geol., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Benchmark Metals Inc.
Benchmark is a Canadian mineral exploration company with its common shares listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States and the German Stock Exchanges in Europe.  Benchmark is managed by proven resource sector professionals, who have a track record of advancing exploration projects from grassroots scenarios through to production.

This news release may contain certain “forward looking statements”. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8cbf60fa-7481-4531-8c97-8262c424ceb1
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d3c74e09-b006-4650-8a1e-ee92a0f69e24

Lawyers Gold & Silver – core – September, 2018 Note: ’83 and ’84 core not available for sampling.