Bezant announces successful mining of Colombian asset

London-based exploration company Bezant Resources announced on Wednesday that it had successfully mined into the high-grade gold-platinum zones at its Colombian asset.

Mining at the FKJ-083 licence area in the Choco region of west Colombia recovered over 110 ounces of gold and platinum during the grade verification process from the more than 39,000 tonnes of surface to bedrock material tested and processed.

In the high-grade zone, grade verification returned 0.37g of gold-platinum per tonne, with 0.2g per tonne and 0.06g per tonne being recorded in the production and low-grade zones.

Following the successful conclusion of the grade verification process, Bezant announced it would soon begin the next phase of its production ramp-up.

Bernard Olivier, chief executive of Bezant, said, "Our mining to bedrock and grade verification process has not only successfully tested production viability but has also identified high-grade zones containing significant levels of metals.

"We have also developed a cost-effective secondary processing system during our verification process work that is capable of treating low-grade material extracted from the open pit operation without significant additional cost implications," he added.

As of 0900 GMT, shares had fallen 6.25% to 1.12p.