Bezant to focus on Argentina

30th Mar 2011 16:30

AIM-quoted Bezant Resources is trying to sell its Mankayan copper-gold project in the Philippines and concentrate on the Eureka copper-gold project in Argentina. There was a cash outflow of £920,000 in 2010 as Bezant undertook scoping studies on its projects. This has helped to confirm the potential of the Mankayan and interest is being shown by potential buyers. The conceptual scoping study suggests a pre-tax NAV of $1.5bn. There is a maiden independent JORC compliant probable ore reserves of 189m tonnes grading at 0.46% copper and 0.49g/t gold.AIM-quoted Bezant had £838,000 in the bank at the end of 2010 but since then a further £4.74m has been raised in a placing. Bezant is acquiring the Eureka project via serious of staged option payments over two years. There are 11 highly prospective copper and gold exploration licences in the Jujuy province of north-west Argentina, which are covered by the deal. Bezant also still has interests in Tanzania.