REG - Bezant Resources PLC - Maiden Kanye Drill Programme, update Hope & Gorob

Bezant ResourcesAnnouncement

09/02/2023 15:00

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RNS Number : 4945P  Bezant Resources PLC  09 February 2023

 

 

 

09 February 2023

Bezant Resources Plc

("Bezant" or the "Company")

Maiden Drill Programme Results on Kanye Mn Project

& Hope and Gorob Update

 

Bezant (AIM: BZT) is pleased to provide information on the maiden drill
programme at its' 100% owned Kanye manganese exploration project in Botswana
and an update on the Hope and Gorob project in Namibia.

 

 

Highlights:

 

·    Maiden Kanye drilling programme - 11 mainly shallow, angled RC holes
totalling 682m at Moshaneng prospect as well as one short diamond drill hole
at Loltware prospect.

 

·    Moshaneng drilling intersected a zone of flat-lying detrital,
supergene manganese-iron mineralisation which appears to infill an irregular
karst surface over a minimum strike length of 400m.

 

·    Among assay intervals encountered were:

o  6m @ 28.64% MnO from 6m depth in hole MS-RC-12

o  Including 4m @ 35.38% MnO from 8m depth

o  3m @ 21.85% MnO from 4m depth in hole MS-RC-06

o  3m @ 21.20% MnO from 2m depth in hole MS-RC-07

 

·    Potential for at least another 100m of strike extension to the
southeast of holes MS-RC-07 and MS-RC-012 would extend the total strike length
to a minimum of 500m

 

·    Less than 25% of the more than 2km potential extent of the target
defined by soil geochemistry has been drill tested

 

·    Grades compare favourably with reported grades on neighbouring more
advanced manganese projects and therefore the Kanye project warrants detailed
evaluation and drilling with a view to establishing the mineral resource
potential

 

·    Drilling at Loltware encountered encouraging manganese enhancement in
core, warranting further investigation.

 

 

Colin Bird, Executive Chairman of Bezant, commented:

"We are very pleased with these Kanye drill results particularly as we have
several other targets still to pursue. In the meantime, we will submit
samples from the recent drilling for metallurgical test work and are
optimistic we will achieve battery grade quality material. In addition, we
will drill test the other identified targets along the delineated strike
extension with the aim of moving towards potential resource definition."

 

 

 

Kanye Drilling Programme

 

Drilling was focussed on the Moshaneng Borrow Pit where high grade manganese
boulders were exposed by shallow excavations for road fill material within a
zone oriented east.southeast-west.northwest. The maiden drill programme was
aimed at establishing the strike continuity, depth extent and grades of the
mineralised zone.

 

It was originally planned to undertake diamond core drilling, but it quickly
became apparent that the detrital manganese mineralisation encountered could
not be efficiently cored, so the programme was switched to reverse circulation
('RC') drilling in order to recover most of the manganese-rich material.

 

In total 11 mostly angled holes were drilled at Moshaneng for a total of 682m,
including two initial stratigraphic holes, followed by a series of shallow
holes on four profiles. Available drill sites in the Borrow Pit were
restricted by the pit workings and the space required to set up the large RC
drill rig. Nevertheless, the mineralised zone was successfully tested in
several of the holes spanning a minimum strike length of 400m. Based on
initial pXRF checking, samples were chosen for assay at the ALS Global
analytical laboratory in Johannesburg - selected assay intervals are shown in
Table 1 below:

 

 

 Table 1 - Selected Assay Intervals from Moshaneng RC Drilling Programme
 Hole No   Depth from (m)  Depth to (m)  Interval (m)  MnO%
 MS-RC-12  6               12            6             28.64
 Incl.     8               12            4             35.38
 MS-RC-03  12              15            3             9.47
 MS-RC-06  4               7             3             21.85
 MS-RC-07  2               5             3             21.20

 

Based on the drilling results and mapping of recent excavations towards the
southeast end of the Borrow Pit, it appears that the manganese-hematite zone
occurs as a shallow, flat-lying detrital deposit, probably with supergene
enhancement, infilling an irregular karst dissolution layer towards the base
of the Taupone Dolomite unit just above its contact with the underlying Black
Reef Quartzite. The tenor of the grades encountered in drilling to date at
Moshaneng are broadly in line with the grades reported from the nearby Giyani
Metals K-Hill deposit, where an Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.7 million
tonnes grading 25.7% MnO at a cut-off grade of 7.3% was reported in April
2021.

 

The mineralised zone was seen to extend in the Moshaneng pit by at least a
further 100m (500m minimum strike length in total). A series of channel and
chip samples were collected by the Company for assay in the southeast pit
extension before it was backfilled by the road contractors. These returned
values up to 62.65% MnO - see Table 2 below:

 

 

 Table 2 - Moshaneng Borrow Pit SE Extension Grab/Channel Sampling Programme
 Sample No  MnO%   Sample Type  Location
 PEX S1     62.65  Channel      Pit wall
 PEX S2     5.07   Channel      Pit wall
 PEX S3     6.29   Channel      Pit wall
 PEX S4     42.41  Channel      Pit wall
 PEX S5     59.24  Channel      Pit wall
 PEX S6     7.79   Channel      Pit wall
 PEX S7     4.45   Grab         -
 PEX S8     8.62   Grab         -
 PEX S9     4.65   Grab         -
 PEX S10    50.30  Floor        Pit floor

 

 

The area partly drill tested and sampled to date at Moshaneng represents about
a 500m length of a zone which is interpreted from mapping and soil sampling to
extend for at least 2km and is further open to the west-northwest.

 

At the Loltware prospect, 4km east-southeast from Moshaneng, a single shallow
angled diamond drill hole completed at 40m depth in the vicinity of earlier
trenching encountered moderate manganese enhancement in a clay zone above the
footwall quartzite, with an assay interval of 5.2m @ 7.80% MnO from
14.05-19.25m.

 

Follow-up will focus on Moshaneng and will include geophysical surveying to
help delineate the extension of the Moshaneng trend, preliminary mineralogical
and process recovery test work to establish the amenability of the
mineralisation to upgrading to battery grade manganese, and follow-up/infill
RC drilling.

 

Hope and Gorob Project, Namibia

 

A decision from the Ministry of Mines and Energy regarding the Hope and Gorob
mining licence application ML 246 remains pending. Exclusive Prospecting
Licence 5796 has been extended to 19 October 2024. EPL 5796 is the licence
within which the area of mining licence application ML 246 has been made.

 

Further work on the drill core generated during the most recent programme to
test near-surface mineralisation has been completed and the new database is
under review by external resource consultant Addison Mining Services with a
view to generating an additional open pit Mineral Resource Estimate in Q2 2023
to complement the existing underground resource.

 

Personnel familiar with the Matchless Belt geology and in particular the Hope
and Gorob style of mineralisation have been recruited to manage the next phase
of exploration to test the balance of the known and projected strike length
and other defined targets. Exploration will focus on additional drilling and
it is aimed to commence this programme in Q2 2023.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 Bezant Resources Plc

+44 (0)20 3416 3695
 Colin Bird

 
 Executive Chairman

 Beaumont Cornish (Nominated Adviser)    +44 (0) 20 7628 3396

Roland Cornish

 Novum Securities Limited (Broker)

 Jon Belliss                             +44 (0) 20 7399 9400

 

 

Beaumont Cornish (Nominated Adviser)

Roland Cornish

 

+44 (0) 20 7628 3396

Novum Securities Limited (Broker)

Jon Belliss

 

 

+44 (0) 20 7399 9400

 

or visit http://www.bezantresources.com (http://www.bezantresources.com)

 

 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations
(EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law pursuant to the Market
Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) regulations (SI 2019/310).

 

Qualified Person:

Technical information in this announcement has been reviewed by Edward (Ed)
Slowey, BSc, PGeo, technical director of Bezant Resources Plc. Mr Slowey is a
graduate geologist with more than 40 years' relevant experience in mineral
exploration and mining, a founder member of the Institute of Geologists of
Ireland and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules.  Mr Slowey has
reviewed and approved this announcement.

 

Glossary

 

The following is a summary of technical terms:

 

 "mineralisation"  Process of formation and concentration of elements and their chemical
                   compounds within a mass or body of rock

 "MnO"             Manganese oxide

 "shale"           A fine-grained laminated sediment

 

 

 

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