Interview with Stephen Stares, President of Benton Resources (TSXV: BEX): Advancing their Flagship high-Grade Cape Ray Gold Project in Newfoundland toward Production
|
By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 11/25/2016
Benton Resources Inc. (TSXV: BEX) is a well-funded Canadian-based junior project
generator heading towards production with a diversified property portfolio in Gold-Silver,
Nickel, Copper, and Platinum group elements. Currently Benton is advancing their flagship
high-grade Cape Ray Gold project in Southwestern Newfoundland toward production, together
with their 50/50 partner, Nordmin Engineering Ltd. We learned from Stephen Stares, President
of Benton Resources and the winner of the Bill Dennis Prospector of the year award at PDAC
2007, that they are currently evaluating some new discoveries in the Thunder Bay area and
partnering with industry leaders like Rio Tinto. Plans for 2017 include a full feasibility
study for the Cape Ray deposits. At this stage the project is being advanced 100%, at no
cost to the company, with the JV partner financing the project.
"Rich House" Visible Gold Showing - Staghorn Property, NFLD
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-chief of Metals News,
interviewing Stephen Stares, who is president of Benton resources. So Stephen, could you
tell our readers what differentiates your mining company from others?
Mr. Stephen Stares: Our mining company is pretty unique in that we are a project
generator. With that model, we have advanced some fairly early stage stuff to good places in
discovery. We also have an advanced gold project, in which we have a partner carrying us all
the way to a full feasibility study. They will arrange 50% of project financing and they
will earn 50% of the project in completing those milestones.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell me a bit more about that project?
Mr. Stephen Stares: That project is called the Cape Ray Gold Project. It sits in
Southwestern Newfoundland on the Cape Ray structure, which basically runs through the center
of the island of Newfoundland for about 600 or 700 kilometers. It is a major gold structure.
There are other deposits such as Marathon Gold. There has been a bit of a recent staking
acceleration; pretty much the whole structure, for that 600 kilometers, has been staked up
by companies such as Altius Minerals.
Altius has recently announced a new discovery on the Cape Ray structure as well. They call
it the Alder zone, where they've channel sampled, trenching 49 grams over 4.6 meters. It is
a pretty exciting new district. Benton has a series of gold deposits. They are called the
Cape Ray gold deposits, which includes six different deposits, four of those deposits we've
optioned out to Nordmin Engineering out of Thunder Bay. Nordmin is an engineering firm that
builds mines for other companies, but in this instance we've partnered with them.
They have taken on spending the money and are advancing this project towards
production, with a goal of owning 50% of an operating goldmine.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds great! Very promising! By the way, I interviewed Phil Walford
several times about his property in Newfoundland. It sounds exciting.
Mr. Stephen Stares: Yeah, we are on the exact same structure that Marathon is.
That structure is getting a lot of attention. We also have a project called the Staghorn
project, with which we are 50-50 joint ventured with Metals Creek Resources in Newfoundland.
That's just southwest of Marathon by about 10 kilometers. Recently, all that ground has been
staked solid, all the way to Marathon and northeast of Marathon.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds great. Could you tell me a little bit about your other
properties? I know you have quite a few.
Mr. Stephen Stares: Yeah. Benton is a project generator, so we look for
opportunities. We are currently evaluating some new discoveries in the Thunder Bay area.
We've recently staked the Iron Duke project. We have a backhoe in there currently, stripping
off some gold zones that we've sampled up to 20 grams per ton. We have another project
called Abernethy Gold, where we drilled 11 holes and we had really great success in
identifying a good gold system there.
We are looking for joint venture partners on those projects. We have the Saganaga
Gold Project, where there's probably been more than three million dollars spent over the
last 10 years on that project with significant gold grades of 20 meters of over five grams
per ton. We'd partnered on that project with companies such as TECK Resources.
Unfortunately, due to the downturn, in the last few years, we've kind of lost all those
joint ventures.
We are certainly thinking, that with the uptick in the market, we are going to be
able to move a lot more of these projects now. A day or two ago, we announced a deal on one
of our copper-nickel-platinum-palladium projects with Rio Tinto. Rio is now advancing that
project. They'll spend about 13 million dollars over the course of 12 years if they stay in
that option agreement. Grades from boulders on that project assayed up to 1.5% copper, 0.8%
nickel, and three to five grams platinum, palladium, gold combined in selective gram
samples.
Rio Tinto will be looking for the source of those boulders. They have a great track
record of discovering high grade magmatic deposits in those systems. We are pretty happy to
get such a good company to advance this project.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds exciting. That's very good. Could you tell me a bit more
about your background and your team?
Mr. Stephen Stares: Yeah. We have a great team. Most of our guys have been with
the company since the beginning. We put the team together in 2004 and IPO'd Benton in 2005.
I've been in the mining industry since I started with Noranda Mining in 1988. I've been
involved in several discoveries with them including the Eagle River Mine, which is now
operated by Wesdome resources. I've been involved in exploration at Hemlo gold camp, base
metal camps such as Geco and Matabi in Northern Ontario. Our team has a lot of experience
in various geological environments.
In 2007, my family, including my brother Michael, and I were the recipients of the
Bill Dennis Prospector of the year award at PDAC, which is the biggest award in the mining
industry. That was given to our family for our contribution to the industry over the last 50
to 60 years. 90% of my family is involved in the mining sector in one way or another. Two of
my brothers are CEOs of Junior mining companies as well. We love what we do, and we are
pretty successful finding new discoveries.
Dr. Allen Alper: That's excellent to have a history of mining in the family and to be
so successful. That's great, and to be recognized. That's very good!
Mr. Stephen Stares: It’s a great award to win! That's for sure! To have on your
resume! We are hoping the next time we win it, it will be for a major discovery.
Dr. Allen Alper: That will be great! I’ll be watching for it. Could you tell me a bit
about your finances and where your stock is listed etc.?
Mr. Stephen Stares: Benton is listed on TSX Venture Exchange. We currently have
just under three million dollars in cash and approximate a million dollars in equities of
other companies. That's through our project generation model. We've optioned ground to
various companies and received stock and cash as option payments. We've managed to keep the
shares fairly tight. We have about 79 million shares out; insiders own about probably 15% of
the company. We believe we are tremendously undervalued as is a lot of the market right now.
But, I think that should improve over the course of the next year with Cape Ray drill
results coming in. We just finished 5000 meters of drilling on that project.
We are just starting to get results in now. We should start seeing the first few holes
released in the next week to 10 days. We are always evaluating new opportunities. I believe
we will see some of those opportunities come to fruition in a while, which should also
create some excitement for the company.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. What are your plans going into 2016-2017?
Mr. Stephen Stares: We are advancing the Cape Ray deposits. We put a PEA in
march, which was very positive. We are moving that to a pre-feasibility study in January.
Then we will do some more drilling early summer and move towards a full feasibility study
for the following part of the year. That comes with permitting of Tailing Ponds
environmental studies. That stuff is all underway for the Cape Ray deposits. Also, we are
planning on trenching more drilling on some of our other earlier stage projects.
We are looking for joint venture partners as well to help advance some of these
things as we always do. As the market progresses ahead and looks stronger, we believe that
new joint venture opportunities will come our way. We will continue to pursue new
discoveries.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. What are the primary reasons our high-net-
worth readers/investors should consider investing in your company?
Mr. Stephen Stares: I think the main reason is we are tremendously undervalued
at this point. There are not a lot of juniors, in our category, that have such an advanced
high grade gold project in the five to six gram range, that's being carried 100%, at no
cost to our company. Nordmin is right now carrying all the expense all the way to a pre-
feasibility study and then into a full feasibility study, and then they are going to arrange
50% of project financing. There are not a lot of junior companies out there in our position.
Plus we are still fairly cash-rich.
I don’t think we have financed a company, until now, since 2007. We manage to be
pretty self-sufficient and not dilute in hard times. Now, we just did a small flow-through
financing, a lot of which was done internally, to do the work we have in Ontario and
Newfoundland on our grassroots project, but there is a lot of upside. I think we are pretty
much at the bottom of the market now. I think it is a perfect time to be entering Benton
resources, an eight-cent company, with such great assets, cash value, and projects with lots
of news flow.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds very good. Is there anything else you would like to add
Steve?
Mr. Stephen Stares: We are an active bunch of guys. Clint Barr and Paul Degagne
worked with many major and junior companies alike. My brother Mike, who is CEO of White
Metal Resources, has been instrumental in picking up good assets and advancing them for
Benton. I think our team is tremendous. The market is starting to warm up, and we have lots
of big news coming in. So I think now is a perfect time to enter the company.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent.
http://www.bentonresources.ca/
684 Squier St
Thunder Bay, ON
P7B 4A8
(P) 807.475.7474
(F) 807.475.7200
|
|