The dual-listed, Quebec-focused explorer raised C$10 million at $1.10 per share via a private placement in Canada last September, an 80% premium to its then Toronto closing price of 61c.
Twelve months on, it has almost replicated that feat, with a further placement overnight to raise almost $12 million at an average 73c, a 65% premium to Benz's last traded share price on the TSX Ventures Exchange of 44c.
Benz, which has recorded a number of exploration successes for gold, copper, and lithium over the past year, said it had strong support for the new issue of Chess Depositary Interests to institutional, professional, and sophisticated investors.
The raising was managed by Canada's Peartree Securities, and Australia's Euroz Hartleys, and Canaccord Genuity.
The placement includes 4.8 million CDIs priced at 44c cash, a 4% discount to recent trading, and 11.8 million CDIs priced at about 84c, which will qualify as flow-through shares in Canada, priced at a 90% premium.
Cranston said the cash injection should position Benz for a "transformational" six months of milestones, including a new resource for its Eastmain gold project, and the results a 20,000m drilling campaign.
Eastmain has a resource of 376,000 ounces gold grading 7.9gpt, and a new exploration target along the existing Mine trend of 460,000-880,000 at 5.7-7.5gpt.
The explorer claims to have defined some 6km of prospective strike along the belt.
More recently its maiden pegmatite drilling at Ruby Hill West, west along trend, returned 26m at 1.01% lithium from 7.4m, including 3.7m at 2.7%.
Benz suggested the area was mistakenly logged as hosting an 80m-thick granite in 2008.
Further, drilling at Michel, 5km along strike from its Eastmain resource, encountered copper sulphides at relatively shallow depths.
Benz expects to spend $7 million exploring for minerals such as battery-linked lithium, nickel, and cobalt, while $3 million will be earmarked for gold drilling.
It will also use Chrysos Corporation's PhotonAssay process to re-assay historical core from the Eastmain gold project.
Another $200,000 will pay amounts due under its 2019 Eastmain option agreement.
Benz, which completed an ASX listing in late 2020, believes Eastmain is a potential new mining district that has been neglected since the 1990s.
Shares in the explorer were up 16% in Australia today at A64c, valuing it at $71 million.
It has traded between 37-95c over the past year.
