Bezant Resources PLC Regulatory News (BZT)

19 Dec 2007 08:05

Bezant Resources PLC19 December 2007 Bezant Resources Plc ("Bezant" or the "Company") Large Copper Gold Porphyry intersection at the Company's Mankayan Project in the Philippines Highlights: • Expansion of the known western extent of the copper and gold mineralisation.• Over 630m of copper and gold porphyry intersected to date at drill hole BRC-50.• Average Cu-equivalent values (CuEQ) of 0.52% over the entire 636m intersection.• Over 100m of high grade intersections with an average 0.85% CuEQ. Bezant Resources Plc (AIM: BZT), the AIM listed exploration and developmentcompany with gold and copper assets in the Philippines and gold assets in Tanzania, is pleased to announce the preliminary assay results for the first diamond drill hole (BRC-50). This hole forms part of an ongoing 11,000m drilling program at the Mankayan property, with the project site situated 260km north of Manila in the Philippines. BRC-50 is currently drilled to a depth of 981m and assay results have been returned for a total of 636m of core for the interval 345m to 981m, with the average assay results of the entire 636m of intersections as follows: CuEQ Cu (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t)0.52 0.357 0.316 0.855 The drill size of BRC-50 is currently being reduced to allow for deeper drilling in the order of 1,100m. There are currently two drill rigs operating at the Mankayan property, with the second drill rig for hole BRC-51 situated on the southern extent of the deposit currently at a depth of 920m. The results have provided significant further delineation of the known copper and gold mineralisation on the western side of the Mankayan porphyry. Highlighted intersections shown below, comprise of over 100m of composite intersections with average grades of 0.58% Cu; 0.5g/t Au; 1.55g/t Ag and a 0.85% average CuEQ*. Highlighted Intersections From To CuEQ Cu% Au g/t Ag g/t Interval (m)372 375 0.80 0.53 0.49 0.80 3381 384 0.83 0.58 0.45 1.00 3468 471 0.72 0.46 0.48 1.20 3480 483 0.75 0.45 0.54 1.30 3492 495 0.73 0.53 0.37 1.10 3531 534 0.71 0.52 0.34 1.60 3558 561 0.72 0.50 0.39 1.40 3582 588 1.03 0.56 0.87 2.68 6591 597 0.80 0.55 0.46 1.55 6609 612 0.92 0.66 0.48 1.20 3639 642 0.82 0.54 0.51 1.10 3648 654 1.09 0.69 0.73 2.40 6657 660 0.93 0.60 0.60 2.40 3690 693 0.79 0.55 0.43 1.30 3696 708 0.80 0.58 0.41 1.13 12714 723 1.13 0.74 0.70 2.62 9732 744 0.87 0.62 0.45 1.33 12753 756 1.06 0.77 0.54 1.90 3768 771 0.71 0.51 0.35 1.30 3813 816 0.96 0.63 0.60 1.90 3825 828 0.79 0.53 0.48 1.70 3891 894 0.96 0.76 0.36 2.50 3897 900 0.75 0.51 0.43 0.80 3963 966 0.85 0.61 0.45 1.00 3Total 0.85 0.58 0.50 1.55 105 At site, the diamond drill core is cut into halves using a diamond saw at theCompany's core handling facility within Mankayan. Half of the core is retainedfor future geological and metallurgical work, while the remaining half of thecore is sent to McPhar Laboratories in Manila for analysis. At McPhar the coreis dried, crushed, pulverised and a combination of fire assay and atomicabsorption spectrophotometry (AAS) is utilised. McPhar is an ISO 9001 accreditedlaboratory (www.mcphar.com.ph). Clive Sinclair-Poulton, Chief Executive of Bezant, commented:"We are delighted to have further defined the mineralisation extending to the western side of the copper gold porphyry deposit. The prospects for 2008 look very promising and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders and employees for their continued support." *Copper equivalent values are estimated using long-term metal prices including: Cu at USD$1.2 per pound and Au at USD$450 per ounce. CuEQ equals Cu per cent. plus Au grams per tonne times 14.47 / (1.20 (x) 22.05). Metallurgical recoveries are not considered and adjustment factors to account for differences in relative metallurgical recoveries for gold and copper will depend upon the completion of definitive metallurgical testing. It should also be noted that silver values were not included in the CuEQ calculations. Dr. Bernard Olivier has reviewed and approved the technical information contained within this press release in his capacity as a competent person, as required under the AIM rules. Dr. Olivier is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. For further information, please contact: Clive Sinclair-Poulton, Chief ExecutiveBezant Resources PlcEmail: clive@bezantresources.comTel: +353 (0) 85 739 2674 James HarrisMatthew ChandlerStrand Partners LimitedTel: +44 (0) 20 7409 3494 Gary MiddletonSt Swithins PR LimitedEmail: gary@swithins.comTel: +44 (0) 7951 603 289 Notes for editors: The Mineral and Production Sharing Agreement covers a total of 534 hectares in the Guinaoang area of the Philippines (the "Mankayan Project"). This is located in the Mankayan-Lepanto mining district, an area of porphyry copper belts in the Philippines and is similar to several deposits that have already been developed, such as the St Thomas deposit near Baguio City. The site is adjacent to the copper/gold mine owned and run by Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company. The Mankayan-Lepanto area has been mined for centuries and is accessible by both road and air. The Mankayan deposit was discovered in the early 1970's and since then, has been extensively drilled with historically four programmes being completed covering more than 45,000 metres of diamond drilling over 48 holes. The historic resource estimate is in the order of 166.5 million tonnes at approximately 0.52 per cent. Copper and 0.54 g/t of gold. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange