LONDON (Alliance News) - Bezant Resources PLC on Tuesday said it is keeping a tight lid on costs as it works to progress its licence portfolio, resulting in a narrowed interim pretax loss.
Bezant said its pretax loss for the financial half year to the end of December was GBP265,000, compared to GBP328,000 a year before, mostly due to cost-cutting initiatives the group put in place in 2014 and as it kept spending focused on its licence obligations.
Bezant said the sale of its Mankayan copper-gold project in the Philippines has been held up by a mining tax proposal tabled by the country's government which has created uncertainty over the impact this may have on the Philippines mining industry.
Exploration and spending at the Eureka copper-gold project in Argentina has been scaled back in order for Bezant to focus on selling Mankayan.
In the second half so far, Bezant has exercised an option to acquire Leewards Islands Exploration LLC, which holds options over alluvial, platinum and gold mining licences in the Choco area of Colombia.
Bezant said it has appointed Laurence Read as an executive director. He was previously a non-executive director of the company.
Bezant shares were untraded on Tuesday morning, having last traded at 2.00 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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Bezant Res (BZT)