(Sharecast News) - Bezant Resources unveiled the results of an updated indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Hope and Gorob copper project on Friday, located within EPL 5796 in Namibia.
The AIM-traded firm, which holds a 70% interest in the project, said that independent consultants, Addison Mining Services (AMS), conducted a comprehensive assessment.
It said the updated MRE, conducted under the JORC 2012 code, included a total mineral resource of 15 million tonnes gross at 1.2% copper, estimated across the Hope, Gorob Vendome, and Anomaly deposits.
That included total indicated resources of 1.24 million tonnes at 1.6% copper and 0.4 grams of gold per tonne at the Hope deposit, as well as total inferred resources of approximately 14 million tonnes at 1.2% copper, covering the Hope, Gorob, Vendome, and Anomaly deposits, with about three million tonnes at 1.7% copper and 0.4 grams of gold per tonne at Hope.
The resource estimation only considered gold content for some prospects, except the Hope target, due to historic boreholes not being assayed for gold.
Bezant said it contemplated a programme to provide the necessary data to include additional gold in the resource estimate, anticipating average grades of 0.2 to 0.4 grams per tonne.
The MRE identified significant potential for open pit extraction, with an open pit resource of 2.4 million tonnes and the possibility of expanding the open pittable resource by an additional 700,000 to one million tonnes, potentially supporting a five-year mine life at an annual rate of 500,000 tonnes.
Deeper parts of the orebody showed potential for underground mining, using a former concrete-lined shaft with additional access from the base of the open pit.
The estimated mineral resource contained around 190,000 tonnes of copper, with AMS suggesting that it could be significantly increased by drilling untested areas with projected mineralisation and a drilling programme to enhance gold credit, thus raising the overall copper equivalent grade.
Bezant said exploration potential remained high, with extensions to existing open pit resources highly likely.
Those extensions were excluded from the resource estimate due to historic low drill density, with further drilling expected to lead to additions to the updated mineral resource.
Metallurgical results from direct test work were pending, and thus, they were not factored into the MRE study.
The study considered reasonably assumed metallurgical inputs from past test work and previous studies.
"We are very pleased with the outcome of our work over the last two years and we now have a JORC 2012 resource, which our consultant agrees is both capable of significant increase and equivalent copper value," said chairman and chief executive officer Colin Bird.
"Concurrent with the work on the resource study, we have been very active on all aspects of the factors which go toward building a mine.
"We are confident that we now have sufficient information, resource modelling, financial modelling and environmental innovative approach to bring a small mine into production, whilst aggressively carrying out further exploration to increase the resource significantly."
At 1112 BST, shares in Bezant Resources were up 13.33% at 0.034p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
Bezant Res (BZT)