Member Info for prickly

The previous RNS refers to renewed interest in the Mankayan and Eureka projects in the light of increasing commodity prices. We asked Bernard in November and he mentioned three parties but did not name them. I would also be extremely happy to take $10m but $5m may be more realistic. BZT is still well positioned IMHO and this is not just deluded desperate shareholder talk. Other shareholders know much more about the current situation in Philippines.

I don't think you can expect the disposal of the mankayan licence to happen so quickly. It is only recently that it has reacquired some value. With the change in the mining regulatory regime in Manila. Large mining concerns will be conducting time consuming due diligence before making any offers. We know there are three interested parties, so I am quite optimistic that we can recoup something in the region of $5-10 million. Like Quindell and Randy I hold a large holding and am immensely disappointed by the last bungled fund raising. However we are where we are and this latest RNS at least shows we have fully paid up assets consisting of licences of 2600ha covering promising prospects..100% ownership is a more bankable asset and should improve our prospects for funding I am not sure what scoping results we have from the large HCA-082 licence. When we met Bernard O in November he hinted that early analysis showed 50% gold 50% Pt .as opposed to the 30/70 mix in current licence(FKJ-083) To be fair I cannot remember which licence area he was referring to. I think it was HCA-082 but I cannot find any reference to this study in the RNS's. In either event we know that there are plenty of good mining prospects in the El Choco area and Gold and PT prices are reasonably strong. The other good news is that ED Nealon is still involved and whilst he remains influential there is hope for this beleaguered company.

I raised this problem of constant small fund raising depressing the share price in our meeting Randy. Bernard said he had been advised by his people that this was the best approach. He has been poorly advised as we can all see. I also asked why they stuck with Beaufort but he was under the impression that the current fundraising was going fine when he set off for Columbia. It then went tits up whilst he was away and hence the rush for an alternative funding at a huge discount at the last minute when he returned. I think he was genuinely shocked that Beaufort screwed up (what was his MD doing you might ask! ) I have just bought in another million and have never sold a single share, although i wish i had cashed a few in at 2p plus a few months ago. The basic case for investing has not fundamentally changed in. y view but they do need to be more transparent on the. cash burn . Halting production so close to projected profitability is a big disappointment and suggests things were tighter than we hoped. We really need someone on the BOD who is a bit sharper on the funding and financial PR side. I do not think Lawrence Read is up to it.

Just seen the RNS . Am currently at Adelaide airport waiting to fly to HK. Had thought yesterday’s inept batting collapse was pretty bad news until I read this. My reading s that Beaufort has failed to raise the funds and we have had to run to Peterhouse to keep us afloat. The plan had been to raise this 500k and then another 500k early in the new year and this would have enabled us to achieve full 2shift production and profitability . Now this second funding is clearly unavailable without diluting us all into oblivion. How has it all gone so sour in such a short time.? The boards reliance on Beaufort and a drip by drip approach to funding has always worried me. Beaufort clearly are very poor fundraisers and equally hopeless at managing our PR. They have left us in the sorry position of stumbling at the penultimate fence and in danger of not making the finishing line. The BOD has to take the blame for taking its eye off the share price which this drip drip approach has undermined and ultimately left us languishing with a ridiculously low SP . All is not lost however and we should be capable of raising the required finance through a J/V or asset financing although we shall be negotiating from an unnecessarily weak position. At least we will not face any more equity raising So when i get back I shall buying in again at this low low price but i would like to hear some more positive news from the board about asset disposals elsewhere PDQ.

The last sentence in the answer to Q 6 should be "the political situation is improving and there is renewed interest in the project." He then goes on to say how he will update the market once progress is made with one or more of the interested parties.

I hope that Bernard has answered your questions to your satisfaction chaps. I found him very helpful and engaging. He is definitely focussed on getting us to full operational capacity and although he was pretty hemmed in by regulatory constraints I think he has given us some of the details we were hoping for, especially the interest in Mankayan. I am now off to HK and Adelaide! hopefully retrieve the cricket situation. Wish me luck we will need it....

We will update the the market once progress is made with one or more of the interested parties. 6 When will the share registry be updated? ...The website has just been improved and the share registry will be updated during the coming week. 7 Does the deeper digging bring problems with water levels ...The operation is in a high rainfall area so we do need to pump the pit dry on a regular basis. We do however have all the required pumps and infrastructure to pump the pit dry whenever we need access and develop the the lower levels of the pit. 8 What is the value of the secondary washer installed for the inferior grades? ...The secondary processing plant was built and positioned to allow cost effective extraction of platinum and gold metals from the lower grade zones, closer to the surface. ( surface to around 17m) when the material is excavated to access the higher grade material and also as part of the rehabituation process. 9 How do you see the future of the company and when do you think the market will appreciate the progress the company has made? ... As indicated in 2 above we have made tremendous progress during the last 12 months. We are very close to operational profitability and my focus is on getting the project over this important milestone. Once this is reached and it will be reached in the very near future, the future plans will become clearer. The market should then give us the recognition that our achievements deserve.

I met up with Bernard Olivier last friday. He had kindly agreed to meet up along with a fellow shareholder colleague from my office.He said he was very happy to answer our questions but made it clear he could not divulge any market sensitive information. Q.1 Given we now know the grades and the depths could he estimate sales in the the near future? .......Sales are expected to grow significantly over the as we ramp up the processed volume and I am happy with the current progress with the ramp up process which was initiated after the successful grade verification process to bedrock level. 2. Could the current mining operation at El Choco be used as collateral for debt financing and avoid the need for more shareholder placing? ...Due to the nature of the deposit and the fact that we decided to fast track into mining rather than develop the project through the more traditional exploration phases, which included significant expenditure in drilling a JORC resource, plus various other studies required for a bank feasibility study, the project is not suitable for formal debt financing I believed we achieved far mor more and at a lower cost to shareholders by fast tracking into production rather than spending the same amount of funds on exploration and feasibility studies . With limited funds we have achieved the following over the last 12months: independent scoping study Exercise of licence option Renovated and built a complete mining camp with gold and platinum concentrate rooms Acquired and commissioned our primary processing plant Full mine infrastructure Initiated mining and developed mine to bedrock Built a secondary processing plant Successfully verified grades to bedrock Initiated mine ramp up So we have built up a fully operational mining business and also established exploration operations in nearby areas as part of our larger project expansion plan. With NO debt.. The shareholders have taken the risk along with the directors and senior management who have accrued and converted large amounts of unpaid fees and salaries into shares. Accordingly shareholders and board� s interests are aligned and we will reap the benefits as ramp up production continues and the project expands. 4. What is the life expectancy of the current pit and what are the future expansion plans? ...We are currently focussing on mining FKJ-083and have currently an estimated 2 years of mining areas identified on the licence which we will test and and potentially expand through pitting and drilling while continuing to mine the main open pit. We have a total licence area of ove 2600 ha so the project has significant expansion potential. We are currently doing sampling work in the area and will update the market as the results come in. 5 There has been encouraging news from the Phillppines. When can we know of any developments with our Mankayan licence ? ...The political environment in the Philippines are finally starting to improve and there is renew

i don�t think you can automatically infer that deeper digging will require more funding. We are not sinking a new and expensive shaft. This is all part of the same open pit that we have been exploiting successfully so far just a few meters lower . No new equipment needed. More profitable and thus more cash generative the deeper we go til we reach bedrock which is 5meters below the current production zone.

Hope to update you by the weekend llejjb... I see the SP is slowly recovering..

I found some photos on Laurence Reade's posting along with podcasts

https://www.**********.co.uk/company/BZT

Thanks Guys. Getting a good list together...

Tks lejjb Noted. Quinny? Randy?

I am getting together a few questions that I want to put to Bernard Olivier about the short term future plans of the company. He is an amenable chap and I hope he can clarify a few points: 1. Given that we now know the grades and the depths we are working in. What are the predicted sales over the next six months from the single plant. 2. Can this (profitable) plant provide security for a loan to buy additional plants mentioned in the August RNS.( We would dearly need to avoid more fund raising at the current low SP) 3. Would these plants be used in the current license area to open up new pits. 4.. When can we expect the scoping results of the adjacent HGE-082 licence area? Be good to get some firming up of immediate prospects from the BOD . And BTW I put in a small order to buy 100k today and it was registered as a sell at 1.07! Any other questions to add to my list to present to the chairman?

Most of us who bother posting on this BZT forum are fairly committed to the company and generally see most developments as positive and are busy building up shareholdings or at least holding on. What would be interesting for me is to hear the views of those who are selling . I appreciate there are myriad reasons for selling apart from personal needs but I wonder if they could share them with us. It might help the management if they were better informed of shareholder attitudes. Bernard Olivier seemed quite non plussed by the the reaction yesterday and so was I ... I can guess at some but be good to hear from horses mouth..So come on sellers pls explain your reasons. we wont shout at you

About 1% of BZt shares changed hands and the price slumps 10% on a pretty good RNS. shows what a narrow market this is. And confused. Best approach for BOD is continue rapidly towards profitability by quickly ramping up production and get some serious investors on board.

Just listened to it and he makes 4 critical points 1. Mine is in Columbia not SA or Zimbabwe (today's coup news about Zim underlines this) 2, Alluvial is much cheaper than deep shafting PT 2 km mines. (Ours is a very shallow open pit operation Hemo) 3.Free of smelting requirements and enviro hazards 4.BZT is now a production company not a speculative exploration outfit. He also says the next priority, having verified the grades, is to ramp up the production to 900m3 per shift and soon to have two ten hour shifts per day as per the original scoping plan in march 2017 Processing 1800m3 per day at the HGZ would produce 500ozs per month per my calculation which would be optimal for one plant and if we then roll out half a dozen in adjacent licence zones it shows the potential for this company. Everything is going to plan and as predicted. I will be hanging on and adding to my holdings at this very undervalued SP> I expect to make a lot of money in BZT!

Randy deserves a medal for supreme optimism and unflinching support. But would probably settle for a 4p SP!

Being a BZT shareholder reminds me a little of life in the trenches for squaddies. We have day after day of relative inactivity.and boredom . Just a bit of squabbling and discussion amongst the troops to keep us amused. Then we are suddenly peppered with bursts of activity as we go over the top with a positive RNS predicting future riches. A little later we are unexpectedly laid low by an unwelcome piece of fundraising! But we soldier on in full expectation that we will win the battle as General Ed and major Bernard reveal that their cunning plan is working and the sunlit uplands of 4-5p and beyond are nearly with us.