Bezant Resources plc (LON:BZT) shares rose on Thursday morning as the company announced that its Mankayan copper-gold project in the Philippines is to be “world class asset” and has a major potential to generate further value.
The AIM-listed firm said its in-depth internal review process across all aspects of its operations and portfolio assets revealed that the Mankanyan project represents one of the most advanced copper-gold projects not currently being developed.
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The copper-gold exploration and development company said the project’s total post-tax net cash flow is approximately US$3.7bn.
Bezant added that the last hole, BC-60, drilled by Gold Fields Netherlands Services BV returned 342 metres of core at an average grade of 0.6% copper and 1.01 grammes per tomnne of gold.
The company said that further exploration work is required to determine the potential of its Eureka Project in Argentina, but positive geophysics suggest it has the potential for underlying ‘feeder’ beds.
Laurence Read, CEO of Bezant, said: “I am particularly excited at the potential to revisit the historic Mankayan engineering study and apply new technical approaches in order to further enhance the potential financial returns.”
He added: “This engineering review work coupled with the opportunity to focus on a distinct high grade zone affords us multiple options to progress the project.”
“Mankayan not only has the capability to be a major future mine, but I believe it can also be developed in a staged approach to minimise the front end capital required,” he concluded.
In early morning trading, Bezant’s shares rose 2.4% to 0.42p.