Benchmark Metals (TSXV: BNCH) announced that it has received support from the Tsay Keh Dene Nation, Kwadacha Nation, and Takla Nation to advance its flagship Lawyers project in British Columbia, Canada.
In a media statement, Benchmark said that management signed a trilateral agreement with the partner First Nations, which is vital to building and maintaining community support for the project.
According to the miner, its own commitment requires that Lawyers is developed in a sustainable manner that provides social and economic opportunities while maintaining inherent rights to ancestral lands.
The Tsay Keh Dene Nation, Kwadacha Nation and Takla Nation showed support for the gold-silver project
“We are very pleased to be working cooperatively, clearly demonstrating the capability and strength of support from our Partner Nations. It shows what can be done when companies and indigenous groups build relationships and work together,” Benchmark’s CEO, John Williamson, said in the brief. “These supportive relationships bode well for continued success to advance the Lawyers gold-silver project along the permitting path for a mining decision. Benchmark is rapidly advancing the project with near-term drill results and milestone events in the context of a surging gold sector.”
The 140-square-kilometre Lawyers property is located in the Golden Horseshoe of north-central British Columbia and sits on the prolific metal-endowed Stikine Terrane.
Exploration on the Lawyers property and the surrounding area began in the late 1960s and peaked in the 1980s, identifying numerous showings, prospects and deposits culminating in the development of the Lawyers gold-silver mine that operated from 1989-1992 and produced 171,200 oz gold and 3.6 million oz silver over the four-year period. The deposit was never fully mined, or the surrounding area thoroughly explored for gold-silver mineralization.