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nortH AMericA

Broad

potential

tracked at

Eastmain

Numerous recent gold discoveries in
the James Bay area of Quebec has put
uring his time as a resource analyst, for 2021. the region on the exploration radar.
DXavier Braud followed the Bellevue Braud said the flow-through funding al- Benz Mining has 220sq km of ground
Gold Ltd story more closely than most. lowed capital raisings at a premium (up to covering 45km strike of greenstone belt
In fact, it was Braud who first initiated 80%) to market price, limiting dilution to in the district
research on Bellevue (formerly Draig) in shareholders.
2018 at 18c/share. Three years on, Belle- “That money raised through flow-
vue is on the cusp of development at its through funding has to be spent on explo-
namesake project near Leinster in West- ration and there are deadlines and time-
ern Australia. lines for us to do that. When we raised we have reiterated that process time and
As Bellevue has moved along, so has that money last year, we adapted the pro- again. And every time we have done so
Braud who has taken his many years of gramme to what we could do and adapted we have found gold at Eastmain.”
experience as an exploration manager the capital raising to what we could do. Having a good grasp on effective explo-
of various companies and as a resource We could have attracted far more mon- ration techniques at Eastmain sets Benz
analyst across the world to the Eastmain ey, but we knew what we could spend,” on course to build serious momentum at
gold project, Quebec, as chief executive Braud said. the project this year, which will be aided
of Benz Mining Corp. “We are on track to drill our designated by a second rig arriving to site last month.
While Eastmain, located in the Abitibi 50,000m this year.” Furthermore, there doesn’t appear to
greenstone belt which runs into Ontario, Close to 8,000m drilling had been com- be any constraints preventing Benz from
is geographically far from Bellevue, Braud pleted at the time of print, with 10 holes all-year round activities at Eastmain.
sees some geological relation between for 4,000m done already this year target- “We are the first ones in that belt and
the two projects. ing FLEM and DHEM conductors identi- we are the only ones with infrastructure
“Eastmain has the peculiarity that gold fied during the 2020 EM campaign. there,” Braud said.
exists with pyrrhotite. That is what Belle- Benz has confirmed the presence of a “We are the only company with a camp.
vue has and when you track pyrrhotite mineralised horizon below A Zone, about We’re the only people that can keep
with electromagnetics…pretty much 2km from where the Nisto Trend – discov- working all-year round for example. We
when you find pyrrhotite you find gold. It ery hole 3.8m @ 8.5 g/t gold – was first have one rig and will have a second rig
is for that specific reason that we went to intersected at D Zone. spinning very soon. We have EM crews,
Quebec,” Braud told Paydirt. DHEM and further drilling is planned geologists, fieldies and all the camp sup-
Since Eastmain was discovered in to better define the lateral extent of this port people in place; we are not limited by
1969 and acquired by Placer for base mineralisation, as Benz works towards seasonality.”
metals potential, exploration has been an updating the current indicated and in- Eastmain is complemented by an all-
on-off affair with rudimentary application ferred resource of 1.48mt @ 7.8 g/t gold weather road and it is 316km from the
of EM applied during several cycles. for 375,800oz. major mining centre of Chibougamau.
Eastmain was mined for two seasons in Braud said modern EM had been par- Therefore, it appears all the necessi-
1994 and 1995 with 118,356t @ 10.58 g/t ticularly helpful in Benz repeatedly finding ties are in place for Benz to set up shop in
gold for 40,000oz (recoveries of 95% via gold mineralisation at Eastmain, where Quebec for the long-term.
CIL) produced. high-grade gold mineralisation has been “Eastmain itself has plenty to deliver on
There was limited work done at East- identified over 10km with intercepts up to its own and one of the reasons for going
main last decade but arguably not to the 13.2m @ 53 g/t gold. to Canada was the size of the tenement
level and detail that Benz Mining Corp “We have brought back in EM, which package. What we do have at Benz is
plans. was used to discover the deposit, but we already big – 45sq km strike length of a
With an existing TSX-V listing before are using a far more powerful and well greenstone belt – and we have only start-
making its way to the ASX via a $2 million understood version of the technology,” he ed exploring 3-4km of that,” Braud said.
IPO last year, Benz bolstered its kitty with said. – Mark Andrews
a private placement of flow-through units “For the last 20-30 years people haven’t
and hard dollar units oversubscribed in been using it and the whole thing for us
October, essentially setting up the com- is tracking the gold using EM – surface
pany’s exploration budget of $C15 million EM – to find conductors for us to drill and

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