Mr. Stephen Stares reports

BENTON ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF DARIN WAGNER AS SPECIAL ADVISOR AND PROVIDES EXPLORATION UPDATE

Benton Resources Inc. has appointed Darin Wagner, PGeo, as a special technical adviser. The company has welcomed Mr. Wagner as he brings a wealth of knowledge in volcanogenic massive sulphides (VMS) and gold systems, along with a long career in equity markets leading to multiple mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Wagner's resume is truly impressive as a professional geologist with over 35 years of mineral exploration and corporate development experience. He has an accomplished background in public company fund raising, corporate management/governance and merger/acquisition transactions. He is a recognized expert in gold exploration with broad experience in mesothermal, epithermal and porphyry environments.

Mr. Wagner co-founded/founded several Abitibi region exploration companies including West Timmins Mining, Falco Pacific Resources and Balmoral Resources. West Timmins and Balmoral were acquired by third parties in deals valued at $424-million and $160-million, respectively, and Falco transferred to the Osisko Group to advance after acquisition of the multimillion-ounce Horne deposit in Quebec by Falco Pacific.

More recently Mr. Wagner has served as a management/technical adviser to numerous companies in the exploration and mining space including Gatling Exploration (acquired by MAG Silver), Nova Royalties (acquired by Metalla Royalty and Streaming) and most recently MAG Silver (acquired by Pan American Silver). He currently sits as an advisor to TSX Venture Exchange-listed Midnight Sun Mining, Dryden Gold, Majestic Gold, and private gold exploration and royalty companies.

The company's board of directors has approved the grant of 300,000 incentive stock options to Mr. Wagner at an exercise price of 10 cents for a period of five years that will vest in accordance with the company's stock options plan.

Company president and chief executive officer Stephen Stares stated: "We are extremely pleased to welcome Darin to the Benton team. I've known Darin for many years and have truly admired his leadership and successes throughout his career. His experience in exploration, discovery and financial markets will be a great addition to Benton as we advance our excellent portfolio of projects."

Mr. Wagner added: "I began my exploration career in central Newfoundland working with Noranda during the discovery and delineation of the Duck Pond VMS deposit and am excited to return to the area working with the Benton team," said Mr. Wagner. "Recent news from Benton, Equinox and others highlight the outstanding discovery potential which remains in Newfoundland where Benton is extremely well positioned."

The company would also like to update shareholders on its Newfoundland exploration plans. Due to the unusual weather and extreme amount of snow this winter, the company decided to postpone drilling until conditions on the ground improve. The company has continued with a small soil sampling program north of the South Pond deposit, and has commenced plans to upgrade the exploration camp to ensure it is better equipped to handle a larger and more robust exploration season at Great Burnt. These upgrades are well under way and scheduled to be completed in the next couple weeks.

In addition and as soon as weather permits, Benton is planning a trenching program to expose several new areas of gold and base-metal surface showings discovered while prospecting last season on the Dominion Lake project. A recent announcement by Equinox Gold Corp. has created new excitement in central Newfoundland, where they have discovered several new gold zones within the company's Valentine gold property. These significant new results continue to show the huge potential for new discoveries in the region. Benton holds very large land positions at Dominion Lake and at Victoria West which covers the western continuation of the same stratigraphy and geology as that of the Equinox discoveries.

Qualified person

Stephen House (PGeo), vice-president of exploration for Benton Resources, the qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release and prepared or supervised its preparation.

QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) protocols

Core and rock samples, including standards, blanks and duplicates, are submitted to Eastern Analytical Ltd., Springdale, Nfld., for preparation and analysis. All samples were acquired by saw-cut (channels/drill core) with one-half submitted for assay and one-half retained for reference, or hand (rocks) and delivered, by Benton personnel, in sealed bags, to the Springdale lab of Eastern Analytical, which is an accredited assay lab that conforms to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025. Samples are analyzed using Eastern's Au (Fire assay) at 30 g plus ICP-34 method that delivers a 34-element package utilizing a 200-milligram subsample totally dissolved in four acids and analyzed by ICP-OES analytical technique. Overlimits are analyzed with Eastern's atomic absorption method, using a 0.200 g to 2.00 g of sample, digested with three acids. All reported assays are uncut. Eastern Analytical Ltd. achieved ISO 17025 accreditation in February, 2014 (for more details on the scope of accreditation visit the CALA website). Grab samples are selective in nature and may not represent the average mineralization of a bedrock exposure.

About Benton Resources Inc.

Benton Resources is a well-financed mineral exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BEX. Benton has a diversified, highly prospective property portfolio and holds large equity positions in other mining companies that are advancing high-quality assets. Whenever possible, BEX retains net smelter return (NSR) royalties with potential long-term cash flow.

Benton is focused on advancing its high-grade copper-gold Great Burnt project in central Newfoundland, which has a mineral resource estimate of 667,000 tonnes at 3.21 per cent Cu indicated and 482,000 at 2.35 per cent Cu inferred. The project has an excellent geological setting covering 25 km of strike and boasts six known Cu-Au-Ag zones over 15 km that are all open for expansion. Further potential for discovery is excellent given the extensive number of untested geophysical targets and Cu-Au soil anomalies. Phase 1 and 2 drill programs returned impressive results including 25.42 m of 5.51 per cent Cu, including 9.78 m of 8.31 per cent Cu, and 1.00 m of 12.70 per cent Cu. Drilling at the South Pond gold zone, approximately 7.5 km north of the Great Burnt copper-gold zone, has confirmed a robust gold-mineralized system over 2.5 km with results of 74.20 m of 1.43 g/t Au and 43.75 m of 1.62 g/t Au and is open for expansion in all directions.

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