Second Rig On Site And Drilling To Accelerate Exploration Campaign

TORONTO - Benz Mining Corp. reported that the second drill rig, which had been booked to start in February, is now drilling at Eastmain 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 certainly help us accelerate our efforts at Eastmain but, more importantly, it will allow us more flexibility to balance our 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. 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.