Airborne Survey at Hope Copper-Gold Project

21 April 2021

Bezant Resources Plc

("Bezant" or the "Company") 

Airborne EM-Magnetic Survey at Hope Copper-Gold Project, Namibia

Bezant (AIM: BZT), the copper-gold exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with SkyTEM Surveys ApS ("SkyTEM") to undertake an airborne electromagnetic (EM) and magnetic survey over a large part of its Hope Copper-Gold licence block.

Highlights:

·    The Company has signed a contract to undertake an airborne EM/magnetic survey commencing late April 2021 along the 130km prospective Hope-Matchless massive sulphide belt to identify previously unrecognised copper-gold targets hidden beneath sand/overburden cover and at depth

·    The survey will look for buried extensions of the Hope and Gorob-Vendome deposit cluster on EPL 5796, as well as testing the extensive underexplored potential through EPLs 7170 and 6605

·    Several copper showings are known historically along the belt to the northeast but these were not investigated using modern exploration techniques and were never drill tested

·    Flying is expected to commence before the end of the current week

Colin Bird, Executive Chairman of Bezant, commented:

"The Hope and Gorob copper/gold licence block represents a very prospective target for Bezant where we already have a resource of almost 200,000 tonnes of contained copper. The Matchless copper belt has many old small-scale workings which have never been subject to assessment by modern exploration techniques. The objective of the airborne geophysical survey is to identify unmined potential extensions to Hope and Gorob, as well as identifying other drill prospects along the extensive 130km strike length of prospective geology. The team is excited about the potential of the Matchless copper belt for new discoveries and looks forward to the results of the survey which is set to commence in the coming week."

The planned SkyTEM programme, costing circa US$300k, will comprise approximately 3,000 line km of helicopter-borne surveying covering most of the 130km strike length of the prospective Hope-Matchless belt stratigraphy within the property, with a flight line spacing of 200m. The survey objective is to map for copper-gold massive sulphide mineralisation from surface to approximately 200m depth or beyond. Mineralisation typically occurs in clusters of often steeply-dipping lenses which may be partially covered by surficial sands or represented at surface by small mineral occurrences/workings or soil geochemical anomalies. Much of the area is very underexplored, with drill testing being confined to a number of well documented occurrences, such as Hope and Gorob which are exposed at surface.

Surveying is expected to commence in late April and to take approximately ten days to complete. Data processing and final report delivery will take a further six weeks, with the aim of delineating  targets for subsequent drill testing.

Hope Copper-Gold Project Background Information

Project Area: The Hope Copper-Gold project comprises three exclusive prospecting licences, EPL 5796, EPL 7170 and EPL 6605, totalling approximately 1,053km², located in central Namibia approximately 100km to the south west of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.

Regional Geology and Mines: The area covered by the Hope Copper-Gold Project is characterised by superficial quaternary sand and gravel overlying the Swakop Group of the Damara Supergroup. The area is dominated by massive mica schists of the Kuiseb Formation of the Pan-African Damara Orogen. These lithologies host multiple high-grade copper-gold Besshi Type massive sulphide deposits, such as the historically mined Otjihase Copper deposit (>16Mt @ 2.2% Cu & 1.2g/t Au) to the northeast of the Hope property.

JORC Resource: The Hope Copper-Gold Project covers a significant portion of the highly prospective Matchless Copper Belt. The Bezant project area contains a series of copper deposits, of which three (Hope, Gorob-Vendome and Anomaly) make up a combined Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 10.2Mt @ 1.9% Cu and 0.3g/t Au at a 0.7% Cu cut-off, reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012),, containing 192kt of Cu metal and 3,190kg of Au. Approximately 30% of the Mineral Resource tonnage is classified in the "Indicated" Mineral Resource category with the balance in the "Inferred" Mineral Resource category and the estimate was based on 339 drill holes for a total of 63,855 metres.

Previous Exploration: Previous exploration on the Bezant licence block focussed on the known prospects in the immediate vicinity of the Hope and Gorob deposits on EPL 5796, mainly due to the fact that they outcrop and are still open at depth. This work has led to a sound understanding of these copper-gold prospects but has left the vast majority of the area unexplored, especially by modern exploration techniques. EPL 6605 and EPL 7170 contain the Niedersachsen Cluster which includes three previously discovered copper prospects (Niedersachsen, Aros and Kobos) within EPL 6605 and one copper prospect situated in EPL 7170 (Schlesien, situated close to the north-eastern licence border with EPL 6605).

The information on the Hope Copper-Gold Project has been sourced from the geology and resource estimate competent persons report prepared by Measured Group Pty Ltd for Virgo Resources Limited on 18 October 2019.

For further information, please contact:

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 by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR").

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

A 'Mineral Resource' is a concentration or occurrence of solid material of economic interest in or on the Earth's crust in such form, grade (or quality), and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade (or quality), continuity and other geological characteristics of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge, including sampling. Mineral Resources are sub-divided, in order of increasing geological confidence, into Inferred, Indicated and Measured categories.

An 'Indicated Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity, grade (or quality), densities, shape and physical characteristics are estimated with sufficient confidence to allow the application of Modifying Factors in sufficient detail to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit.

An 'Inferred Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade (or quality) are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade (or quality) continuity. It is based on exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes.

"Au"     Gold

"Cu"     Copper

"Mt"     million tonnes

"kt"       thousand tonnes

"g/t"      grammes a tonne