LONDON (Alliance News) - Copper-gold exploration company Bezant Resources PLC said Thursday it has completed its "in-depth internal review process" across all of its assets.
At its Mankayan copper-gold project in the Philippines, Bezant believes the mine to be "world class" and its "scale and potential" is "relatively unknown" to the trade and wider market.
The last hole drilled, in 2014, returned 342 metres of core at an average grade of 0.6% copper and 1.01 grammes per tonne of ore of gold. The total after-tax net cash flow at the project is about USD3.70 billion.
At its Eureka project in Argentina, Bezant reported a postulated 600,000 tonnes of contained copper and 52,000 ounces of gold. The mining company also said that "positive" geophysics suggest the potential for underlying "feeder beds". The review of the site identified the potential gold contribution could be "significantly greater" than historically indicated.
Shares in Bezant were up 7.2% Thursday in afternoon trading to 0.44 pence each.
Chief Executive Laurence Read said: "Our review process has identified a number of fundamental aspects within our copper-gold portfolio where value can be extracted by adopting an innovative technical approach.
"I am particularly excited at the potential to revisit the historic Mankayan engineering study and apply new technical approaches in order to further enhance the potential financial returns. This engineering review work coupled with the opportunity to focus on a distinct high grade zone affords us multiple options to progress the project. Mankayan not only has the capability to be a major future mine, but I believe it can also be developed in a staged approach to minimise the front end capital required."
Bezant Res (BZT)