Benchmark Metals Inc. announced that work crews are mobilizing to commence for 20,000 metres of focused drilling intended to delineate "Cliff Creek and Duke's Ridge deep" high-grade gold and silver zones. The drill program will further evaluate and enhance its underground mining potential. Benchmark's Lawyers Gold-Silver Project is located within a road accessible region of the prolific Golden Horseshoe area of northcentral British Columbia, Canada.

The aggressive 2023 drill program will be focused on higher-grade gold and silver mineralization located beneath the current PEA pit shells. Trade-off studies have revealed substantial potential for underground mining in conjunction with surface operations to enhance overall economics, increase total ounces, and improve the production profile, particularly during the initial years of the operation. The new data will allow for an update of the Project's Mineral Resources and Economic Study in early 2024.

The Company continues to work towards a merger with Thesis Gold Inc., which has the potential to create a new, world-class precious metal district." 2023 Program Highlights: Up to 20,000 metres of drilling with a focus on ounces beneath the currently modelled pits; Ground magnetics/VLF; Follow-up rock sampling and geological mapping in areas of interest;. Advancement of tertiary targets for new discovery potential, and;. Baseline environmental data collection.

Benchmark drilling to date has focused the majority of drilling to delineate three open pit constrained deposits with a global Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 3.14 Moz at 1.45 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent (AuEq) (1.16 g/t Au and 22.9 g/t Ag) Indicated and 0.415 Moz at 2.63 g/t AuEq* (2.2 g/t Au and 36.1 g/t Ag) Inferred (June 11, 2022). Benchmark is now planning additional drilling to further expand the mineralization at depth. The Cliff Creek Deposit has limited drilling outside and below the pit shells and has already outlined a MRE of 141,000 oz at 3.80 g/t AuEq (3.49 g/t Au and 55.55 g/t Ag) in Measured and Indicated and 315,000 oz at 4.26 g/t AuEq* (3.88 g/t Au and 65.46 g/t Ag) in Inferred category.

The 2023 drilling will include a combination of infill and step-down drilling for resource expansion. In addition, a machine learning Artificial Intelligence (AI) model has predictively outlined grades and further characterized the Resource to depth. The high-grade mineralized zones are controlled by major structures, which the drilling will continue to target at depth and along strike.

The structural models developed by Benchmark show good agreement with the AI and geochemistry models and show the potential for expansion of the high-grade mineralized zones both at depth and along strike. The Cliff Creek Deposit extends across a 1.6 kilometre strike-length. Mineralization plunges to depth with high-grade zones that remain open >550 metres vertical depth at Cliff Creek North and >450 metres vertical depth at Cliff Creek South, highlighting the potential for underground mining scenarios.

Drilling is planned to define the extent of these high-grade mineralized zones both along strike and at depth, which are currently unconstrained in several directions. Several planned 700 metre drill holes have potential to significantly expand mineralization to depth or along strike. The deepest holes drilled at Dukes Ridge to date have extended mineralization, which remains open, to nearly 300 metres vertical depth.

Deeper drilling at Duke's Ridge has potential to extend mineralization to near 500 metres vertical depth.