PANAMA GOLD PROJECT

Panama Gold Project: Advanced by Maxtech Ventures

On October 24, 2019, Benton entered into an option agreement with Maxtech Ventures Inc. (TSX-V.MVT), pursuant to which MVT will have the option to earn up to a 100% interest in Benton’s 100%-owned Panama gold project in the Red Lake Mining district, Ontario (see PR dated September 10, 2019). Under the terms of the Option Agreement, subject to regulatory approval, Maxtech will be required to complete the following:

• Issue 2,000,000 Maxtech common shares to Benton on signing at an underlying price of $0.05 per share;
• Pay Benton $100,000 in cash or share equivalent on the first anniversary, based upon a 10-day VWAP at the time of the share issuance and complete $200,000 in exploration expenditures on the Project;
• Pay Benton $100,000 in cash or share equivalent on the second anniversary, based upon a 10-day VWAP at the time of the share issuance and complete $250,000 in exploration expenditures on the Project at which point a 50% ownership interest will vest to MVT;
• Pay Benton $100,000 in cash or share equivalent on the third anniversary, based upon a 10-day VWAP at the time of the share issuance and complete $250,000 in exploration expenditures on the Project at which point a 70% ownership interest will vest to MVT; and
• Pay Benton $300,000 in cash or share equivalent on the fourth anniversary, based upon a 10-day VWAP at the time of the share issuance and complete $300,000 in exploration expenditures on the Project at which point a 100% ownership interest will vest to MVT.

The Option Agreement contains a 2km area of influence clause that covers the Project’s claim boundary. Benton will retain a 2% NSR on the Project with MVT having the option to buy back 1% for $1 million. In addition, MVT will issue to Benton an additional 1 million MVT common shares upon completion of its initial NI 43-101 compliant resource calculation as defined in the Option Agreement. Should Maxtech earn a 50% interest but elect to earn no additional interest, a 50% MVT 50% Benton joint venture would then be formed. Alternatively, should Maxtech earn a 70% interest in the Project but not elect to earn any further interest, a 70% MVT and 30% Benton joint venture would then be formed according to the terms of the Option Agreement.

The Panama Lake Gold project is hosted in the Red Lake Mining District, 55 km northeast of the town of Ear Falls, and is road accessible. Historical exploration on the claims is minimal and mainly focused on the Panama Zone. This zone was drilled by Noranda Exploration Ltd. in 1988, where 8 widely spaced diamond drill holes over a 1.4 km strike length yielded results of up to 2.8 g/t Au over 4.5 m within a 20-30 m wide mineralized shear zone. The Panama Zone is one of the main exploration targets on the property.

Of additional interest is a regional glacial till sampling survey (Geological Survey of Canada, 1999 – Open File 3038) that collected a sample on the Panama Lake claims, which contained 107 gold grains, the highest count in the survey which covered the Red Lake mine trend that has produced over 25M ounces of gold. The grains were pristine in nature which provides evidence that their bedrock source is not far from the sample location on the Slate Lake Zone.

In light of Great Bear Resources Ltd.’s new discovery in the Red Lake district (see Great Bear’s press release dated August 22, 2018), Benton spent the majority of 2019 focused on the Panama Project. Benton increased the size of the property (now 7,000 hectares) by staking the ground immediately west of the Panama Zone, formerly Goldcorp’s Ben Lake Project. Goldcorp allowed their Ben Lake claims to lapse when their regional exploration strategy was cut back, and Benton used the work performed by Goldcorp to explore the Ben Lake Zone.

Sporadic prospecting and geochemical work through the fall of 2018 led to the initiation of a 1,420 m diamond drill program completed in Feb/March of 2019. Seven holes were completed at the Panama Zone and were designed to infill Noranda’s 1988 drilling as well as test the grade at depth. The Panama Zone drilling successfully intersected the mineralized quartz flooded shear zone and has provided Benton with a better understanding of the structural controls and lithological units hosting gold mineralization. Two additional holes were completed at the Slate Lake Zone targeting an arsenopyrite-rich meta-sediment where Benton had prospecting samples up to 6.17 g/t gold. The drilling successfully intersected the mineralized unit at depth, as well as outlined a weakly mineralized porphyry to the south of this prospective zone. While the gold grades in the drill results at Slate Lake were not consistent with the 6.17 g/t gold surface sampling, the geological information will be used to determine the source of the gold grains in till.

A High-Resolution Heliborne Magnetic Survey over the entire Panama Project also shows favourable high-priority targets.

The proximity to the Red Lake Camp, adjacent Great Bear Resources discovery, regional-scale structures and mineralized lithologies are all important ingredients to finding a gold deposit on the highly prospective Panama Lake Project.

Highlights of the drilling are included in the table below.