Benton Provides Update on Bedivere Gold Project

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 20, 2017) - Benton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BEX) ("Benton" or "the Company") is pleased to provide an update on the Company's progress on its Bedivere Lake gold project located 130km west of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The Company has now received all required permits for exploration work that would include line cutting, geophysics, prospecting, geological mapping, trenching and diamond drilling. In December 2016, the Company completed a detailed airborne magnetic survey totaling 458 line-kilometres that appears to delineate the northeast oriented gold-bearing structure that hosts the original gold discovery (Traxxin Zone) where select grab samples collected by the property vendors returned gold grades ranging from trace to 1281gpt Au (41 ounces), some of which contain impressive visible gold (see Company website for photos). To-date limited prospecting, soil sampling, mapping, and the airborne geophysical survey has provided evidence of sporadic gold mineralization along the favorable main structure over a strike length of approximately 7km.

The mineralized structure has undergone virtually no historical exploration and current efforts include establishing a winter cut grid, as well as further prospecting and soil sampling. Results received from the earliest soil samples collected range from trace to 2160ppb gold located 150m south west along the structure from the original high grade showing located near the shoreline of Bedivere Lake and anomalous values up to 74 ppb gold situated on the projected structure more than 5km further to the south west. Recent follow-up prospecting along strike of the 74ppb gold-in-soil anomaly uncovered an iron-carbonate rich shear zone with quartz stingers containing pyrite and chalcopyrite. The mineralization, extent of the structure and gold-in-soil anomalies combined with nearby high gold values in lake sediment anomalies (0 to 27ppb Au obtained by the Ontario government -Dyer, R.D. 1999. Lake Sediment and Water Geochemical Data from the Atikokan-Lumby Lake Area; Northwestern Ontario. Ontario Geological Survey, Miscellaneous Release - Data 43) provides compelling evidence that the area is highly prospective for potential gold discoveries.