Benton Resources (TSXV:BEX) - Drilling 'Impossibly' High-Grade Holes in a New Major Copper District

• Benton Resources' Great Burnt Lake copper VMS deposit in Newfoundland has delivered some of the best drill results in the company's history, with recent intercepts including 20%+ copper over significant widths.
• The VMS deposit has the potential to reach 1-2 million tons at high grades, and a much larger 30-40 million ton resource along the 25 km trend.
• The company has excellent infrastructure including a camp near a hydroelectric dam just 2.5 km from the deposit, and a recently built access road opening up the whole belt.
• A 3,000-4,000 m drill program has commenced to better delineate the deposit and identify new lenses, while also conducting mapping, geochemistry, and geophysics to generate new targets along the broader trend for aggressive follow-up drilling.
• Upcoming key catalysts are drill results from the current and future programs, a potential maiden resource at Great Burnt Lake, and new discoveries along the district-scale land package

Benton Building a Major Copper VMS Camp at Great Burnt Lake

Benton Resources (TSXV:BEX) is accelerating exploration at its flagship Great Burnt Lake copper-gold project in central Newfoundland after drilling some of the best holes in the company's history. Recent results have included massive chalcopyrite-rich VMS mineralization grading over 20% copper, within wider intervals of high-grade Cu-Au.

"These are the best holes that we've ever drilled in our whole career," - Benton President and CEO Stephen Stares. "These are pretty much impossible to drill - 22 holes like that over 600 meters within an old resource block."

Interview with President & CEO Stephen Stares

Potential for 1-2 Million Tonne Deposit at Great Burnt Lake

Benton's drilling has focused on expanding and upgrading the historical Great Burnt Lake deposit, which has a non-compliant resource of 4.1 Mt grading 2.9% Cu. The mineralization occurs as a steeply-plunging lens that has been traced for over 650 m along plunge, with thicknesses ranging from 75-200 m in the core of the deposit.

Based on the drilling so far, Stares believes there is potential for 1-2 Mt of high-grade material at Great Burnt Lake itself.

Major Camp-Scale Potential Along the Mineralized Trend

The real blue-sky potential lies in the 25 km mineral trend controlled by Benton, which is largely unexplored.

VMS deposits rarely occur in isolation and tend to form camps of multiple deposits. As an example, Stares pointed to the Rambler Metals camp, which found a second much larger deposit parallel to the original lens that became the main mine.

"The end goal is to find a huge resource. We're hoping to find a 30-40 million tonner either down-plunge or in a parallel zone," said Stares. "The Rambler Metals mine next door, it started in 1971 with a small 2 million ton lens, something similar to Great Burnt Lake."

The Benton team has already identified dozens of untested geophysical conductors and geochemical anomalies for follow-up along the trend, and will be conducting extensive fieldwork this spring and summer to refine drill targets. "There's just so much work to do and it's going to take a lot of drilling," added Stares.

Excellent Infrastructure Enables Low-Cost Exploration

A key advantage of the Great Burnt Lake project is the excellent access and infrastructure. Benton's camp is located adjacent to a hydroelectric dam, just 2.5 km from the deposit with a road accessible to the property.

The company recently extended the road the full 15 km length of the property, greatly facilitating exploration. "Now you can drive that in about an hour, so this has opened things up tremendously for easy trench and soil sample accessibility," said Stares. "The day we drove that road, we found a dozen new showings of boulders and sub-crop chalcopyrite that have never been noted before."

The road access is also enabling highly efficient drilling. The current program is on track for 3,000-4,000 m in about a month, at all-in costs of just over $200/m. "The drill company is unbelievable," said Stares. "We're getting over 200 m a day - they're phenomenal drillers."

The Investment Thesis for Benton Resources

• Benton offers exposure to a rapidly advancing high-grade copper-gold discovery in a top mining jurisdiction. Recent drilling has delivered some of the best intercepts in the company's history.
• Great Burnt Lake has the potential to host a 1-2 Mt deposit at 5%+ Cu-eq based on drilling so far. But the real blue-sky potential is for a camp-scale 30-40 Mt resource along the 25 km mineralized trend, which is largely unexplored.
• As a prospect generator, Benton's business model is to make discoveries and sell them for a significant return to shareholders. However, results from Great Burnt Lake are so compelling that it may become a company-maker project.
• Benton has a tight share structure (~170 M shares) and a strong cash position (~C$2.5 M), with a major shareholder (Eric Sprott) owning 28M shares. Insiders own ~7%.
• Next steps are to complete the current drill program to expand and better define the deposit, while conducting extensive field work (mapping, sampling, geophysics) to generate new targets for follow-up drilling along the broader 25 km trend.

In summary, Benton Resources provides a compelling investment opportunity in a high-grade copper-gold discovery that has the potential to evolve into a major VMS camp. With a disciplined prospect generator model, tight share structure, strong backing, and a top technical team, Benton is well-positioned to unlock the value of this highly prospective district-scale land package.

The Macro Copper Opportunity

According to S&P Global, copper demand from the energy transition is forecast to nearly double from 2020 to 2035. Copper is a key metal used in electric vehicles, renewable energy, and electrical infrastructure, with limited substitution. On the supply side, there have been limited major discoveries in recent years, while existing mines are facing declining grades and reserves. This is expected to lead to a significant supply deficit in the coming decade. As Stephen Stares sums it up,

"We need every copper deposit. We need every junior success story that's capable of delivering one."

Companies like Benton that can make significant new high-grade discoveries will be well-positioned to help fill the supply gap and meet the growing demand from decarbonization. The case for investing in copper explorers and developers is underpinned by a looming supply crunch driven by growing demand from the green energy transition.