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It's the same license application number (246), and the new ("petroleum") tab has additional text for "Granted" and "Expired". This is what makes me think the granting of the license might be close.

I don't think there's any petroleum license application, I think they've incorrectly indentified our mining license application, being license 246.

. . . . on the Namibian Mining cadastre website - https://maps.landfolio.com/Namibia/ , it's saying that our application to mine (as submitted in July 2022) is "Active".

The new tab states that we have an active *petroleum* license, so I'm yet to be wholly convinced that we've finally bagged our license to mine copper, but it's an odd online development if nothing has changed.

Hi Mr. T

I think as someone else has said this morning - no matter how good the results, with no mining license there can be no mine. The provision of a mining license is the "big one" now, however we'd then also need the environmental permits agreed (AFP took six more months to get those after their license had been allocated), and of course we need funding.

The main worry now is how the company's cash balance looks. Let's hope they're parsimonious enough that no further crashing dilution is needed prior to our generating income through mining. If we do need another raise at these prices, then the only people who'll likely benefit are CB and his mates.

No mention of Mankayan. The fact that Colin's talking about raising finance with third parties through SPVs indicates that a windfall from the Philippines isn't on the horizon. Which is a bit worrying.

I'm not sure today's announcement will move the dial much on our SP. It's a small step along the path to commercial viability, but I think the license's value will only be determined when we know the footprint of the resource - it's then that the SP might move.

PART 2 - The license in Namibia is almost agreed. The authorities need to know how out underground mine will link up with the open-pit, and that's being worked on now. They also want a local fish farm set up as part of the license(!), and that was of no consequence to CB.

The manganese at Kanye is in pods (rather than a continuous ore-body), but further work is being done to lower the amount of sulphuric acid needed to process the metal extracted.

Colin expects us to simply sell the ore to Giyani - there'll be no JV with them.

Before the meeting started, a chap behind me (South African accent, called himself a "big shareholder") said to someone that there'd been talk of Bezant merging with African Pioneer. That talk had fizzled out now, but I thought it was worth reporting. I wouldn't be adverse to see it happen if it resurfaced as an option.

Although "mea cupla" at the start, Colin was very bullish by the end. If any other CEO of an AIM miner had done more over the past 12 months, he'd like to meet them. The desire to scream at this point was almost overwhelming.

We finished with "Better times ahead", "Won't be long", "When it goes, it'll really go". Nothing we all haven't heard from him before.

Anyway hope that's of some use."

Hi MrT. These are broadly the notes I sent my Bezant Shareholder Group colleagues on Saturday.

PART 1 - The AGM was in the (plush) offices of Fladgates LLP, with Colin and the Finance Director sat at the front behind a long desk, with a crowd of about 10 to 12 suits and shareholders facing them. It was more "professional" that the last one I went to, with quite a few more people there.

I noted that as soon as I had voted against Resolution 6 (allowing directors etc. to take shares at astonishing discounts in lieu of monies owed to them), we got "mea culpa" Colin . . . . 'I'm here to be criticised", "no one else's fault but mine", "shareholders are right to be angry".

Having rolled through the resolutions (all passed unanimously on the floor of the meeting, except for resolution 6), Colin took questions from the floor.

In my notes, I've written "CB runs through his "greatest hits"", so you know how we spent the next 15 minutes - it was a curtailed version of one of our calls.

So what detail do I have to report?

Apparently, when quizzed about it, Colin said the results for Hope/Gorob are coming out "shortly". He thinks the results will confirm the availability of an open-pit mining opportunity.

He's now saying that 5,000 to 8,000 tonnes over a 6 year period would be acceptable, whereas it was always 8,000 tonnes over 8 years and that anything less wouldn't be economical.

He said he was aware that the company was ripe for a private takeover, but that would depend on enough shareholders accepting the offer that was made to them by an unconnected third-party hedge fund / family office etc. I don't think he was saying one was due, just that we're a sitting target.

Colin knew he'd under-delivered, but as we know, there are no consequences for that under-delivery.

I asked why our share of Mankayan kept falling and he said it was because the other party or parties were adding funding to keep the license in good order, whereas we weren't - as such, there share of the ultimate receipts grew correspondingly.

He said he didn't want our share to fall any further, but gave no detail as to where any future cash might come from (although I suspect we can all guess).

Colin said that he expected news re. Mankayan "imminently". I reminded him he'd said in the autumn of '22 that a sale at a good price should be forthcoming in the spring of '23. He said there was a disconnect between the copper market's needs and how mining companies were acquiring mines to develop. He'd expected much more action by now. "Imminently" apparently means over the coming couple of months.

If anyone has any specific questions they'd like asked at the AGM, I'd be happy to do so if I get the chance.

I've got the "Why is there no progress?" kind of question covered, but if anyone has any detailed points they'd like raised, just let me know.

Thanks.

It's on Friday 28th July at 11. Any takers?

I'll be going, if only to vote against Resolution 3, which gives the Directors the authority to determine their own remuneration.

The accounts said that Colin took over £97,000 in cash and shares in 2021 and over £77,000 in cash and shares in 2022. Given our current share price and continued lack of activity, at least one person has to be voting against that gravy train.

Ultimately, I don't see the company going pop - at least not in the short or medium term. I agree with Silverknight (I think it was him), who said too many parties are now owed too much to allow it to fold.

If push comes to shove and serious cash is needed, we still have 25% of the Mankayan license. CB suggested that could be sold for $5M, so that would keep the wolves from the door for a while.

I genuinely believe that eventually there'll either be copper production in Namibia and / or a trade sale of the Philippine license - the question is what shape the company will be in at the point it starts to be worth something. If at that point the company has issued 10 billion shares (not an impossible outcome), then it needs to be worth £100,000,000 just to be worth a penny a share. Hardly a great outcome for those who have higher averages.

For me, it's the lack of urgency that I find worrying. If Colin isn't able to give the company the drive it needs, what harm would a change of leadership do?

Hi Mr. T

We've had one RNS since October 2022 that wasn't either fundraising or Mankayan-related admin'. One. The news flow here is appalling. If Colin can't commit to pushing the company on as is needed, he should step aside.

I suspect the next RNS we see is that he's issued more shares in order to extend the terms of the £700,000 loan.

Hi Prickly

We own 70% of Hope and Gorob Mining Pty Limited though our acquisition of 100% of Virgo Resources Limited (see RNS of 19th June 2020).

As you know, Hope and Gorob Mining owns the license under which we’ve applied for a license to mine, and, as you say, hopefully that should be with us shortly.

I can empathise about the other half giving you grief. I shudder whenever mine asks “How are the shares doing?” : )

Interesting to see the parallel process being undertaken at African Pioneer.

I note that their mining license (the one we're still waiting for) was granted in September 2022, whilst the environmental permits were only awarded this week. It appears mining can only start after the environmental permits have been granted, and so that gives us some idea of the delays BZT will face before producing any income.

The only reason not to take your money and transfer it to AP is the potential of Mankayan. Colin says a trade sale could be announced at any time, and that would completely change the landscape here. But when considering the timing of such an announcement, is Colin being his usual over-optimistic self?

I recall that we’ve been trying to link up with firms from the Canadian SE (as I understand most South American explorers and producers are listed there) from the time of Laurence Read.

As the price of copper rises, so will interest in the potential of the project, but any current exploration of the license will have to be done on someone else’s dollar.

Do you know how long the license is for, Mr. T? Maybe we’re reaching a time when we’ve got to use it or lose it.

For whatever my thoughts are worth, I don't think the granting of the license will blow the doors off the SP, but a notification that we've got funding might help move us north (if the market likes the terms of that funding, of course).

A trade sale of the Mankayan license for, let's say, $100 million (Goldfield's option payment was $75 million back in 2014), would also help as it'd mean no finance was needed (confirmed by Colin in an answer to my colleague Richard during the last call), and so that would move the dial quite significantly.

I hope (and that's all it can be . . . . "hope") that in six to nine months time, we've a company that is genuinely moving towards income generation, and seen by the market as such. If that's the case, what would such a company be valued at? Ceteris paribus, except maybe with copper at $9,500 a tonne (as per some current projections), you'd like to see a company value of £20 million, and a share price of between .25 and .3 of a penny. At least raising a further £1 million (and there will be further fundraises) won't utterly trash small shareholders at that share price.

Ultimately though, who knows?!

According to Joylon Maugham on Twitter, the group have this afternoon won the right at the Supreme Court to initiate a Judicial Review of Gove's decision to allow drilling to commence.

I suspect the Judicial Review won't succeed (very few do), but it's still a tiresome development.

Lifted from the XTR board, but well worth a watch. The copper analysis starts at about 16 minutes -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgOEGKDVvsg

Hi Mr T

It was evident throughout the call that Colin is definitely frustrated with the lack of progress in relation to both the mining license and the asset outlined in the note of conference call. I genuinely think he's doing all he can to move the various projects along.

He's always a "glass half full" kind of guy, and he's certain that good things lie ahead for the company when these matters are overcome - but at the moment he's just like the rest of us; refreshing the mining cadastre to see whether that licence has been issued.

Absolutely. I'm annoyed that we've actually had news that deserved a RNS (the issuance of the Hope / Gorob Exclusive Prospecting License that expires in October 2024), and yet the market has heard nothing.

If the reason was that Colin was fighting fires over at Xtract, then it clearly illustrates that he's spread too thinly and we need to be led by someone whose sole focus is Bezant. I know he has skin in the game with BZT, but that's still no reason to keep someone who's performing poorly.

I've asked Prickly to arrange a call with Colin as soon as we can all manage. You're right, we need an update given there hasn't been a substantive RNS since October(!)