REG - Bezant Resources PLC - Update on Projects

Bezant ResourcesAnnouncement

06/09/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 4691L  Bezant Resources PLC  06 September 2023

 

 

 

 6 September 2023

Bezant Resources Plc

("Bezant" or the "Company")

Results from Phase 2 Metallurgical Test Work on Kanye Manganese Sample,
Botswana

and Update on Hope and Gorob Project, Namibia

 

Bezant (AIM: BZT) is pleased to provide information on further positive
results of Phase 2 metallurgical testing carried out by Wardell Armstrong
International ('WAI') on a sample from its' 100% owned Kanye manganese
exploration project in Botswana. The primary objectives of the testwork were
to optimise the leaching conditions to achieve high manganese recoveries at
more economical conditions relative to the previous phase of testwork and to
benchmark the project against other manganese projects.

 

Highlights:

 

·    Phase 2 work followed on from previous metallurgical testing
conducted by WAI, and reported in July 2023, aiming to optimise manganese
recovery from the 'Moshaneng' sample whilst minimising the reagent consumption
rates to improve process economics.

 

·    Sulphuric acid leaching optimisation testwork found that manganese
recoveries of 99.5% were achievable at moderate process conditions,
specifically 60°C leaching temperature, 300kg/t of sulphur dioxide addition,
and 284kg/t of sulphuric acid consumption.

 

·    Grind size had minimal influence on the final manganese recovery with
88.0% and 88.3% manganese recovery achieved for feed material particle size
distributions of 80% passing 200µm and 80% passing 150µm respectively.

 

·    Leaching temperature had negligible effect on the final manganese
recovery with 88.0% and 89.5% manganese recovery achieved for leach
temperatures of 60°C and 90°C respectively.

 

·    Leach kinetics of manganese recovery were dependant on the sulphur
dioxide addition rate. Sulphur dioxide introduced incrementally, demonstrated
a staged manganese recovery.

 

·    A Benchmark Project Review was carried out on three recent manganese
projects which were identified as having a similar geographical location
and/or producing final products of a similar specification.

o  Giyani Metals K.Hill Project Botswana;

o  Manganese X Energy Corp. Battery Hill Project Canada;

o  Euro Manganese Inc. Chvaletice Project Czech Republic;

 

·    The Kanye manganese deposit demonstrates an excellent overall
manganese recovery using moderate leaching conditions compared with
benchmarked projects.

 

·    The Kanye deposit composite showed a negligible increase in manganese
leaching performance at elevated temperatures, which is a favourable outcome
from an OPEX perspective.

 

·    Having established that the Kanye mineralisation is potentially
suitable for processing to high purity manganese, the Company will now press
on with planning for further exploration at the project to expand the
footprint of the deposit and advance towards resource definition. Further
metallurgical test work will be considered at a later stage of project
advancement.

 

 

Colin Bird, Executive Chairman of Bezant, commented:

"WAI Group was engaged to carry out this work, the results of which are
pivotal to the Kanye manganese project. The results in essence verify that
manganese can be extracted from the deposit to produce leach solutions with
high manganese concentrations via standard leaching processing technologies
with extremely high recoveries.

 

This is an excellent result and we will now fast track our preliminary
economic assessment, whilst progressing our resource definition by further
drilling and modelling. We will keep the market updated as results are
received"

 

 

 

Kanye Phase 2 Metallurgical Test Work

 

Wardell Armstrong International (WAI) was commissioned by Bezant Resources Ltd
to undertake a second phase of metallurgical testing on a manganese sample
from the Kanye manganese deposit, Botswana.

 

This work followed on from previous metallurgical testing reported by WAI in
July 2023 to assess the amenability of a single manganese sample to sulphuric
acid leaching, where manganese recoveries of up to 99.4% were achievable at
high reagent addition rates.

 

The primary objective of the testwork was to optimise the leaching conditions
to achieve high manganese recoveries at more economical conditions relative to
the previous phase of testwork. Encompassed within these leaching tests was
the evaluation of the amenability to leach a variety of other elements that
will influence the flowsheet economics of producing high-purity manganese
sulphate monohydrate.

 

Testing was undertaken on the same sample used during the first phase of
testwork, to optimise reagent consumptions during the acid leach.
Additionally, a larger suite of elements were tracked over the course of the
kinetic leach to benchmark impurity levels for downstream purification
economics. Finally, a benchmark review of other manganese projects was
conducted to determine how the project sits from a metallurgical perspective
on a global scale. A benchmark data review was conducted on the results
obtained from both the first and second phase of testwork against a variety of
other manganese projects with the intention of producing final products of
similar specifications.

 

Many manganese projects in the African region tend to produce a manganese
concentrate which is subsequently transported to a manganese refinery. These
projects were not chosen to be referenced in the benchmark review as the
flowsheet would not be comparable.

 

 

Head Assay

 

In addition to chemical analysis carried out in the Phase 1 testwork, further
analysis was performed on the sample to determine the grades of a range of
elements that were deemed to affect the operational cost of  a battery grade
manganese product purification flowsheet. The analysis was performed on a
representative sub-sample which had been crushed and pulverised to 100%
passing 75µm. The analysis was conducted by an aqua regia digest with an
ICP-OES finish for manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and iron. For
aluminium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium analysis was conducted by
a lithium borate fusion with an ICP-OES finish.

 

A summary of the head assay data is given in the Table below:

 

 Head Assay
 Product Description  Mn     Cu     Ni    Co     Zn     Fe    Al    Ca    Mg    K     Na
                      %
 Head                 10.98  0.003  0.29  0.010  0.006  4.81  1.26  0.68  0.46  0.28  0.066

 

 

Leaching Testwork

 

Sulphuric acid leaching testwork was conducted on the 'Moshaneng' sample to
optimise manganese recovery whilst attempting to reduce the reagent
consumptions. Solid and aqueous sample streams were subjected to manganese
analysis via ICP-OES, with a combination of aqua regia and lithium borate
digestion as the sample preparation methods for the solid phase.

 

A summary of the whole ore acid leaching test results is given in the
following Table:

 

 Whole Ore Acid Leach Test Results
 Test ID  Grind Size (D(80))  SO(2) Addition  pH   Final Mn Recovery  Final H(2)SO(4) Consumption
          µm                  kg/t            %                       kg/t
 ALT7     200                 300             1.5  88.0               284
 ALT8     150                 300             1.5  88.3               284
 ALT9     200                 250             1.5  83.3               319
 ALT10    200                 300             1.5  89.5               325
 ALT11    200                 300*            1.5  99.5               284
 ALT12    200                 400*            1.5  99.5               348

* Sodium metabisulphite was added at eight hourly intervals as opposed to a
single addition at the beginning of the leaching experiment.

 

 

Benchmark Metallurgical Review

 

A benchmark review of global manganese projects was conducted to determine how
the metallurgical performance compares to other projects. The Kanye deposit
demonstrates a comparable manganese recovery to other manganese projects.

 

A summary of the leach conditions and results is given in the Table below:

 

 Benchmark Acid Leaching Conditions
 Project       Temperature  SO(2) Addition  H(2)SO(4) Consumption  Mn Recovery
               °C           kg/t            kg/t                   %
 Kanye-ALT11   60           300             284                    99.5
 K.Hill        90           261             119                    99.0
 Battery Hill  60           54              470                    91.0
 Chvaletice    90           No addition     465                    77.2

 

WAI Conclusions

 

Sulphuric Acid Leach Testwork

 

·    Sulphuric acid leaching optimisation testwork found that manganese
recoveries of 99.5% were achievable at moderate process conditions,
specifically 60°C leaching temperature, 300kg/t of sulphur dioxide addition,
and 284kg/t of sulphuric acid consumption;

 

·    Grind size had minimal influence on the final manganese recovery with
88.0% and 88.3% manganese recovery achieved for feed material particle size
distributions of 80% passing 200µm and 80% passing 150µm respectively. The
same relationship is observed for most of the other elements tracked during
the testwork;

 

·    Leaching temperature had negligible effect on the final manganese
recovery with 88.0% and 89.5% manganese recovery achieved for leach
temperatures of 60°C and 90°C respectively. The same relationship is
observed for most of the other elements tracked during the testwork;

 

·    Leach kinetics of manganese recovery were dependant on the sulphur
dioxide addition rate. Sulphur dioxide introduced incrementally, demonstrated
a staged manganese recovery. This is consistent with phase 1 testwork that
showed manganese recovery was dependant on the sulphur dioxide addition;

 

·    Other elements were less dependent on sulphur dioxide addition, due
to lack of requirement to be oxidised, specifically copper, nickel, iron, and
magnesium. Calcium, potassium, and aluminium still showed a positive leaching
performance by adopting a staged sulphur dioxide addition rate; and

 

·    Acid consumption is directly related to the sulphur dioxide addition
rate. Sulphur dioxide is consumed to oxidise manganese, and acid is then
consumed to form the aqueous manganese sulphate salt. A strong relationship is
observed between all these variables.

 

Benchmark Project Review

 

·    Three recent manganese projects were identified as having a similar
geographical location and/or producing final products of a similar
specification.

§ Giyani Metals K.Hill Project Botswana;

§ Manganese X Energy Corp. Battery Hill Project Canada;

§ Euro Manganese Inc. Chvaletice Project Czech Republic;

 

·    The primary mineralogical component of the Kanye manganese deposit is
quartz with the primary manganese component pyrolusite. The two primary
mineralogical phases of the K.Hill manganese deposit are manganese
mineralisation in the form of cryptomelane and bixbyite. The primary
mineralogical phase of the Battery Hill manganese deposit across two locations
is manganese-iron silicates. The Chvaletice manganese project is different due
to the project being a tailings facility so the primary mineralogical phase is
quartz with the main manganese component being albite;

 

·    The Kanye manganese deposit demonstrates an excellent overall
manganese recovery using moderate leaching conditions compared with
benchmarked projects;

 

·    Sulphur dioxide and sulphuric acid consumption is slightly higher
than the K.Hill project however is carried out at a significantly lower
leaching temperature;

 

·    Acid consumption with a global comparison falls within the 'moderate'
classification, however, sulphur dioxide addition is high on a global
comparison;

 

·    Kanye PLS impurity concentrations were similar to the K.Hill and the
Chvaletice for copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc. Iron and aluminium
concentrations were lower compared to the K.Hill deposit. Finally, base metals
such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium showed higher concentrations than
the K.Hill project. However, potassium products have good commercial value and
have the potential to be isolated and sold as a by-product for additional
value; and

 

·    K.Hill and Chvaletice flowsheet demonstrate alternative processing
circuits for producing manganese products. Chvaletice uses magnetic separation
to pre-concentrate prior to acid leaching whereas the K.Hill flowsheet does
not. The Chvaletice flowsheet produce two saleable manganese products,
high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate and high-purity electrolytic
manganese metal, whereas K.Hill opts to produce high-purity manganese sulphate
monohydrate only.

 

 

Update on the Hope and Gorob project in Namibia

 

The Company has received the final draft of a revised mineral resource
statement in relation to the Hope and Gorob project from Addison Mining
Services and is working with Addison Mining Services on an announcement
regarding the revised mineral resource statement which it anticipates
announcing shortly.

 

 

 

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 / Asia Szusciak

 Novum Securities Limited (Joint Broker)

 Jon Belliss                                +44 (0) 20 7399 9400

 Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker)  +44 (0) 20 7186 9952

 Damon Heath

 

 

Beaumont Cornish (Nominated Adviser)

Roland Cornish / Asia Szusciak

 

+44 (0) 20 7628 3396

Novum Securities Limited (Joint Broker)

Jon Belliss

 

 

+44 (0) 20 7399 9400

 

Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker)

Damon Heath

+44 (0) 20 7186 9952

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

 "Mn"              Manganese

 "MnO"             Manganese oxide

 "PLS"             Pregnant leach solution

 "shale"           A fine-grained laminated sediment

 "SO(2)"           Sulphur dioxide

 

 

 

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