LONDON (Alliance News) - Bezant Resources PLC Monday said it has received positive results from acid leach groundwork tests at its Eureka project in northern Argentina.
The natural resource exploration and development company with operations in the Philippines, Argentina and Tanzania, said eight samples were selected from pre-existing trenching work at the site. After chemical analysis, the samples produced an average grade of 3.85% total copper with 3.72% being acid soluble copper, representing a 96.6% recovery rate.
The company said the entire mineral composition of the samples showed that they were well suited to heap leach processing and the acid consumption rates in dissolution processes was low.
Bezant originally identified the Eureka project as being a potential low-cost source of copper for a future mine developer, but the new data shows that the copper mineralisation at the Eureka Project area is also suitable for an inexpensive acid heap leaching process.
"Our Argentinian project represents an opportunity for a developer to progress an inexpensive copper source into near-term production," chief Executive Bernard Olivier said in a statement. "We are successfully building up a comprehensive profile for this promising asset, with envisaged low capex and opex requirements, using our in-house technical expertise."
Bezant Resources shares were up 1.1% to 9.48 pence on Monday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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Bezant Res (BZT)