25th Jan 2008 07:00
Bezant Resources PLC25 January 2008 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 southern extent of the copper and gold mineralisation. - Over 621m of copper and gold porphyry intersected to date at drill hole BRC-51. - Average Cu-equivalent values (CuEQ) of 0.60% over a 384m intersection. - Over 120m of high grade intersections with an average 0.90% CuEQ. Bezant Resources Plc (AIM: BZT), the AIM listed exploration and development company with gold and copper assets in the Philippines and gold assets inTanzania, is pleased to announce the preliminary assay results for the seconddiamond drill hole (BRC-51) drilled by the Company at its Mankayan project,located 260km north of Manila in the Philippines. This hole forms part of anongoing 11,000m drilling program at the Mankayan property. BRC-51 is currently drilled to a depth of 1,041.5m and assay results have beenreturned for a total of 621m of core for the interval 307m to 928m, with theaverage assay results of the entire 621m of intersections as follows: CuEQ Cu (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) 0.46 0.29 0.30 0.49 The above results include a 384m wide intersection located between 520m and904m, with the following average assay results for this section: CuEQ Cu (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) 0.60 0.38 0.40 0.65 The drill size of BRC-51 is currently being reduced to allow for deeper drillingto a planned depth in the order of 1,100m. The previous hole (BRC-50) has beenterminated at a depth of 1,130.55m and the assay results for the remainingsection (149.55m) of the hole are expected in mid February. A second drill rigis due to commence drilling shortly on the third hole (BRC-52), situated on theeastern side of the Mankayan porphyry. The results of BRC-51 have provided significant further delineation of the knowncopper and gold mineralisation on the southern side of the Mankayan porphyry andfollow on from the expansion of the known western extent of the porphyryannounced by the Company in December 2007. Highlighted intersections shown belowcomprise over 120m of composite intersections with average grades of 0.54% Cu,0.65g/t Au, 0.94g/t Ag and a 0.90% average CuEQ*. Highlighted Intersections From To CyEq Cu% Au g/t Ag g/t Interval (m) 520 523 1.20 0.75 0.82 2.70 3 565 568 0.93 0.62 0.57 0.70 3 583 586 0.75 0.42 0.61 0.80 3 604 610 1.27 0.77 0.90 1.50 6 637 540 0.71 0.44 0.49 0.80 3 706 709 0.86 0.51 0.65 0.70 3 712 718 0.93 0.57 0.67 0.90 6 721 742 0.85 0.50 0.64 0.31 21 748 754 1.05 0.64 0.74 0.65 6 760 772 0.83 0.51 0.58 0.71 12 775 787 0.98 0.56 0.77 0.85 12 793 796 0.79 0.46 0.60 0.60 3 802 805 0.75 0.46 0.54 0.60 3 808 811 0.70 0.44 0.47 1.00 3 820 826 0.78 0.48 0.55 0.70 6 835 841 0.95 0.63 0.59 1.15 6 844 847 1.16 0.75 0.75 1.30 3 850 853 1.03 0.63 0.72 1.10 3 871 874 0.87 0.50 0.68 0.90 3 883 886 0.71 0.36 0.63 0.90 3 892 895 0.83 0.49 0.63 0.90 3 898 904 0.83 0.44 0.71 0.95 6 Total 0.90 0.54 0.65 0.94 120 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). Commenting today in relation to these results, Gerry Nealon, Chairman of theCompany, said: "We are encouraged and delighted by these results which, together with ourrecently-announced drilling results on the western boundary, suggest that therevised potential for the Mankayan deposit should exceed the existing historicresource estimate. The grades indicated are proven as mineable in thePhilippines and we look forward to further positive news as the current, fullyfunded, drilling campaign progresses". *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 recoveriesare not considered and adjustment factors to account for differences in relativemetallurgical recoveries for gold and copper will depend upon the completion ofdefinitive metallurgical testing. It should also be noted that silver valueswere not included in the CuEQ calculations. Dr. Bernard Olivier has reviewed and approved the technical informationcontained within this press release in his capacity as a competent person, asrequired under the AIM rules. Dr. Olivier is a Member of the AustralasianInstitute of Mining and Metallurgy. For further information, please contact: Bernard Olivier, Technical Director Bezant Resources Plc Email: [email protected] Tel: +255 (0) 754 600 999 James Harris Matthew Chandler Strand Partners Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7409 3494 Gary Middleton St Swithins PR Limited Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 7951 603 289 Notes for editors: The Mineral and Production Sharing Agreement covers a total of 534 hectares inthe Guinaoang area of the Philippines (the "Mankayan Project"). This is locatedin the Mankayan-Lepanto mining district, an area of porphyry copper belts in thePhilippines 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 thecopper/gold mine owned and run by Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company. TheMankayan-Lepanto area has been mined for centuries and is accessible by bothroad and air. The Mankayan deposit was discovered in the early 1970s and sincethen has been extensively drilled, with four historical programmes beingcompleted 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 atapproximately 0.52% copper and 0.54 g/t of gold. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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