Maiden Kanye Drill Programme, update Hope & Gorob

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  Colin Bird Executive Chairman	[phone]
Beaumont Cornish (Nominated Adviser)  Roland Cornish	[phone]
Novum Securities Limited (Broker) Jon Belliss	[phone]

or visit 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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