Located 316km northeast of Chibougamau, Quebec, the Eastmain gold project, including the Ruby Hill West and East concessions, totals more than 22,100 hectares of ground in the highly prospective Upper Eastmain River greenstone belt and is anchored by the past-producing Eastmain gold mine.

An advance team has been mobilised to the Eastmain campsite to complete essential camp upgrades and clean-up in preparation for the start of a 6,000m drill programme scheduled to begin in early September.

Prior to the start of the drill programme, Benz plans to complete 110-line km of time-domain electromagnetic ground survey and borehole electromagnetics on select drill holes which were completed in 2016 and 2017. The integration of historic exploration data with the objective of prioritising drill targets is ongoing.

The current drill plan envisages 4,000m-4,500m of drilling designed to follow up past high-grade exploration drill results outside of the main Eastmain gold mine area and to test new geophysical targets obtained by the geophysical surveys.

The remaining 1,500m-2,000m of drilling will aim to extend the three main A, B and C mineralised zones which remain open at the former producing Eastmain gold mine.

Miloje Vicentijevic, president and CEO, said: "With US$5.5 million in our treasury, Benz is well funded to carry out an aggressive drill campaign and exploration program at the Eastmain project this year. Controlling more than 22,000 hectares of favourable ground including numerous high priority targets, we are excited about the start of this programme and receiving our first drill results in the fourth quarter."

Benz has implemented protective measures for its programme, which follow the INSPQ and CNESST guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company's protocols have been reviewed and accepted by the Cree Nation Government.

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