Copper and gold explorer Bezant Resources continues to look to Argentina as it awaits the exercise of an option for the acquisition of its Mankayan project in the Philippines. Its Argentine asset could prove to be very attractive – suggesting plenty of speculative potential.
That Mankayan option was granted to Gold Fields Netherlands Service for a non-refundable cash payment of $7m (£4.4m), with a further cash sum of $63m payable on exercise no later than end-January 2013. There's no certainty that Gold Fields will exercise its option, although the board believes there's a good chance of it because Gold Fields has further part exercised options with Lepanto Consolidated Mining and Liberty Express Assets to acquire up to 60 per cent of the adjacent Far Southeast project. If it is exercised, Bezant expects to distribute to shareholders around half of the gross proceeds.
The Gold Fields option payment has enabled Bezant to renegotiate a more favourably priced accelerated acquisition of the Argentine Eureka project, which offers near-surface, easy to mine, mineralisation. Eureka comprises 11 copper and gold exploration licences in north-west Argentina, with a potential resource of up to 62m tonnes – grading around 1 per cent copper and containing some 52,000 ounces of gold. Accelerating the Eureka acquisition, rather than staggering the payment, has saved Bezant some $1.3m.
| BEZANT RESOURCES (BZT) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 27p | MARKET VALUE: | £18m | |
| TOUCH: | 26-28p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 48p | LOW: 22p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 21p | NET CASH: | £6.33m | |
| Half-year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | nil | -0.98 | -2.03 | nil |
| 2011 | nil | -1.13 | -1.74 | nil |
| % change | - | - | - | - |
