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 in
Tanzania, is pleased to announce the preliminary assay results for the second
diamond 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 an
ongoing 11,000m drilling program at the Mankayan
property.
BRC-51 is currently drilled to a depth of 1,041.5m and assay results have been
returned for a total of 621m of core for the interval 307m to 928m, with the
average 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 and
904m, 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
drilling
to a planned depth in the order of 1,100m. The previous hole (BRC-50) has been
terminated at a depth of 1,130.55m and the assay results for the remaining
section (149.55m) of the hole are expected in mid February. A second drill rig
is due to commence drilling shortly on the third hole (BRC-52), situated on the
eastern side of the Mankayan porphyry.
The results of BRC-51 have provided significant further delineation of the
known
copper and gold mineralisation on the southern side
of the Mankayan porphyry and
follow on from the expansion of the known western extent of the porphyry
announced by the Company in December 2007. Highlighted intersections shown
below
comprise 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 the
Company's core handling facility within Mankayan.
Half of the core is retained
for future geological and metallurgical work, while the remaining half of the
core is sent to McPhar Laboratories in Manila for
analysis. At McPhar the core
is dried, crushed, pulverised and a combination of fire assay and atomic
absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) is utilised. McPhar is an ISO 9001 accredited
laboratory (www.mcphar.com.ph
).
Commenting today in relation to these results, Gerry Nealon, Chairman of the
Company, said:
'We are encouraged and delighted by these results which, together with our
recently-announced drilling results on the western boundary, suggest that the
revised potential for the Mankayan deposit should exceed the existing historic
resource estimate. The grades indicated are proven as mineable in the
Philippines and we look forward to further positive news as the current, fully
funded, 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 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:
Bernard Olivier, Technical Director
Bezant Resources Plc
Email:
bernard@bezantresources.com
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:
gary@swithins.com
Tel: +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 1970s and since
then has been extensively drilled, with four historical 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% copper and 0.54 g/t of gold.
��������������������� This information is provided by RNS
����������� The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
