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Bezant says gold-platinum sampling underway at the HGE-082 licence area near the Choco Project in Colombia

Published: 18:35 30 Aug 2017 AEST

Mining
Initial samples are currently being processed at the company's laboratories at its central mining office for its Choco Project

Bezant Resources plc (LON:BZT) announced today that gold-platinum sampling is now underway at the HGE-082 licence area located approximately 4km from its current mining operations at the Choco Project, Western Colombia.

In a statement, the AIM quoted gold and platinum mining company said that following the recent commissioning of its first mining operations, it is now pursuing a low-cost expansion strategy, seeking to build a series of production plants for under US$500,000 in construction costs per plant, that can be rapidly deployed and fed with placer gravels.

WATCH: Bezant Resources looking to be operational break-even 'within months'

The firm added that its objective is to develop a production expansion strategy based upon additional plants with positive cashflow and operating profit to generate a sustainable, margin at the group level.

As announced previously, Bezant holds an option over the HGE-082 licence comprising 91 hectares versus the smaller, and significantly historically mined, 75 hectares of the FKJ-083 licence area which forms the current focus of mining operations.

In aggregate, the group is interested in over 2,600 licenced hectares covering the extensive gold-platinum placer fields in the Choco region, where platinum was first discovered in the 19th Century.

Exploration programme ongoing

Bezant said an exploration programme, sampling the HGE-082 licence area with respect to potential future mining, is ongoing with test pitting and sampling activities underway.  

Initial samples are currently being processed at the company's laboratories at its central mining office for its Choco Project.

The company said it further expects to be able to announce an update with respect to its first mining recovery operations on the FKJ-083 licence area, in the near term and the final results of the exploration sampling by Q4 2017.

READ: Bezant Resources shines as it confirms first gold and platinum production at Choco

Bernard Olivier, CEO of Bezant, said: "With commercial mining operations recently commenced, Bezant is now assessing the gold and platinum recovery potential for the other licence areas comprising the Choco Project.”  

He added: “We look forward to updating the market on our current mining operations in the near term as well as the results of our exploration activities once completed and interpreted.”

The Choco region of Colombia is one of the largest precious metals placer regions in the world and Bezant is believed to be the first company to employ modern mining operations in the area, the CEO concluded.

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