Bezant Resources PLC (“Bezant”) & Caerus Mineral Resources PLC (“Caerus”)
Mineral Resource Estimate for the Troulli Au and Cu Project, Cyprus
Bezant Resources (AIM: BZT), and Caerus Mineral Resources (LON: CMRS) the exploration and resource development companies (the “Companies”) with a Joint Venture (“JV”) focused on the Troulli Mine Development Project and other copper-gold JV targets in Cyprus, are pleased to announce the results of an independent Initial Mineral Resource Estimate, reported in accordance with JORC Code (2012), in respect of the Troulli Cu-Au project (“Troulli” or the “Troulli Project”).
Highlights :
· Independent Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources Estimates for Troulli , reported in accordance with JORC Code (2012) prepared by Addison Mining Services Limited (“AMS”). The input databases for the waste dumps and hard rock estimates, included:
o 72 diamond and open hole percussion drillholes, totalling 3,393.30 metres.
o 208 trench channels for 692.17 metres.
· At a selected cut-off grade of 0.5% Cu, a hard rock resource estimate of approximately 2.7 million tonnes at a Cu equivalent grade of 0.74% CuEq (0.51% Cu and 0.26 g/t Au) has been established
· A Total Hard Rock Resource Estimate of approximately 4.9 million tonnes at 0.41% Cu and 0.2 g/t Au for 20,000 t of Cu metal and 31,000 ounces of Au, from a cut-off grade of 0.26% Cu equivalent.
· The Hard Rock Resource Estimate is comprised of:
o Indicated Gossan Resources of 260,000 tonnes at 0.18% Cu and 0.91 g/t Au for 460 t of Cu and 7,700 ounces of Au.
o Inferred Gossan Resources of 180,000 tonnes at 0.14% Cu and 0.47 g/t Au for 260 t of Cu and 2,800 ounces.
o Inferred Breccia Resources of 4.4 million tonnes at 0.43% Cu and 0.14 g/t Au for 19,000 t of Cu and 21,000 oz of Au.
· Inferred waste and tailings dump resources of approximately 93,000 tonnes at 0.76% Cu and 0.12 g/t Au for 710 tonnes of Cu and 360 oz of Au.
Outlook
The Companies will focus on a number of priorities including the upgrading and expansion of the mineral resource, completion of metallurgical test work, environmental baseline studies and the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, continuing development of a mine plan and, submission of a Mining Licence application. Specifically, the near-term programme will include:
Continued resource development and the further expansion of the larger Troulli deposit with the on-going drilling and evaluation of multiple copper and gold-bearing gossans occurring within a 1km radius of the Troulli deposit that have been partially drilled and sampled by Caerus in the past few months.
The drilling of high-grade mineralisation at the Anglisides satellite Project, already broadly defined by Caerus drilling, with a view to the future delivery of this feedstock to the Troulli processing plant for extraction of both copper and gold.
Further work will be undertaken to evaluate the Kokkinopetra Project, located 1.5km from Troulli and within an acceptable haul distance for any payable mineralisation that may be defined.
In parallel with the expansion of the resource, Caerus plans, with guidance from external independent consultant, AMS, to complete infill drilling to upgrade the recently announced mineral resource. This workplan will also include drilling of presumed extensions to mineralisation identified during the current drill programme and include;
· providing AMS with the results of metallurgical test work being undertaken by Jubilee Metals Group as part of the process of upgrading the mineral resource.
· completing the ongoing Environmental baseline study and the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment being undertaken by an independent Cypriot-based consulting group.
· begining the process of mine design and planning based on feedback from both Jubilee Metals Group Plc and the environmental consulting group.
· completing the submission of a Mining Licence application.
Colin Bird, Executive Chairman of Bezant Resources, commented :
“This is a very encouraging start and provides a good foundation for the expansion of the Mineral Resource as we start to include extensions to the mineralization and the area between Troulli and Kokkinapetra. On the back of these Maiden Resource figures we are pleased to announce that we are preparing to commence mine design in parallel with the on-going metallurgical test work. We look forward to the next round of drilling starting in a few weeks’ time and the steady growth of the Mineral Resource as we work towards the development of a new mining venture in Cyprus.”
Martyn Churchouse, CEO of Caerus Minerals, further commented :
“We are delighted with the Maiden mineral resource estimate for Troulli that provides the Joint Venture with the foundation for the continued expansion of the resource as we drill out other known targets located along the 1.5km strike length between Troulli and Kokkinopetra.
This is a significant step along the road to becoming a producer with the future development of Troulli potentially being our first revenue event. With Bezant now committing to mine design, we are able to move to the next stage in the metallurgical test work and plant configuration process. Once we have guidance on likely annual plant capacity we will be able to marry resource tonnes to throughput and start the process of optimisation and providing detail of targeted metal production.
Early indications from metallurgical test work suggest that the lower grade hard rock resource, that below the 0.5% CuEq cut-off may be amenable to low-cost heap leaching adding significantly to the Total hard rock resource by a further 2.5 million tonnes.
The Exploration Team have identified possible extensions to the current mineral resource and these will be drilled out along with the focused targeting of copper – gold gossans that we have already drill-tested and therefore have a high degree of confidence in our ability to define further resources.
The parallel drill programme at the Anglisides satellite project has the potential to deliver easily accessible high-grade feed for any future Troulli plant that can extend the life of the operation.
I would like to thank the Exploration Team for their hard work and dedication in completing the release of a Maiden resource within 9 months of acquisition of the licence and also, AMS for their excellent and highly professional approach in the generation of the resource.”
Overview
The Companies are pleased to announce the results of an independent Mineral Resource Estimate, reported in accordance with JORC (2012), for Troulli prepared by independent consultant Addison Mining Services Limited (“AMS”).
This Mineral Resource Estimate, effective as of 22nd March 2022 for the Troulli deposit comprises:
· A Total Hard rock resource estimate of approximately 4.9 million tonnes at 0.41% Cu and 0.2 g/t Au for 20,000 t of Cu metal and 31,000 ounces of Au, including.
o Indicated Gossan Resources of 260,000 tonnes at 0.18% Cu and 0.91 g/t Au for 460 t of Cu and 7,700 ounces of Au.
o Inferred Gossan Resources of 180,000 tonnes at 0.14% Cu and 0.47 g/t Au for 260 t of Cu and 2,800 ounces.
o Inferred Breccia Resources of 4.4 million tonnes at 0.43% Cu and 0.14 g/t Au for 19,000 t of Cu and 21,000 oz of Au.
· Inferred waste and tailings dump resources of approximately 93,000 tonnes at 0.76% Cu and 0.12 g/t Au for 710 tonnes of Cu and 360 oz of Au.
Competent Person’s Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate, Reported in Accordance with the JORC Code (2012 edition)
Further to the drilling conducted in 2021 and 2022, the Company commissioned AMS to complete an independent Mineral Resource Estimate. The Mineral Resource Estimate is based on all the available data from the waste dumps and hard rock area collected up to the 22nd of March 2022. Assay results for copper and silver are pending for 15 drillholes.
The Mineral Resource Estimate has been reported in accordance with the Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC) Code, 2012 edition.
Summary of Resource Estimate and Reporting Criteria
In accordance with the JORC Code (2012), a summary of the material information used to estimate the updated Mineral Resource Estimate is set out below (for further detail please refer to the JORC (2012) Table 1, set out in the Appendix to this announcement).
Geology and Geological Interpretation
The geology of the two prospect areas at Troulli are described as follows:
The waste dumps constitute a heterogenous mixture of mineralised mine waste and ROM that has been deposited erratically during mine operations throughout the 1960s and 1970s.The material is a mixture of clay, sands and poorly sorted rock, ranging in size from cobbles to boulders. The material consist of two dominant horizons, the “A” and “B” horizons, the “B” horizon is a thin (typically 30 -50 cm) horizon containing supergene enriched copper which underlies the “A” horizon.
The hard rock area is comprised of volcanic rocks of the Troulli Inlier and identified as belonging to the Basal Group (BG), Lower Pillow Lavas and Upper Pillow Lavas.
The BG are the oldest rocks outcropping in the Troulli Inlier and are typically identified by an assemblage of visible or microscopic epidote, quartz, chlorite and the presence of Fe and Cu minerals including accessory pyrite. BG rocks generally resist erosion due to their pervasive silicification. Volcanic breccias are also widespread throughout the BG.
The Lower Pillow Lavas (LPL) typically have a dark brown to khaki colour with celadonite commonly forming coatings. Pillow rims are typically glassy, and quartz may form amygdales. The LPL are largely missing from the stratigraphic succession mapped around Troulli Mine-Kokkinopetra area.
The Upper Pillow Lavas (UPL) cover approximately 70% of the Troulli Inlier. They typically have a pink to light-grey colour, with olivine pseudomorphs, fresh green diopside, abundant calcite fracture fill and amygdales, and zeolites including analcime. Spaces between pillows in the UPL are often filled with a mixture of red calcareous sediments and umberiferous material. The UPL includes pillowed lavas, non-pillowed lava flows, interbedded tuffs and sediments, fine grained basaltic dykes and microgabbroic quartz-basaltic dykes.
Gossans, formed due to the oxidation of sulphide material and resultant acid generation, are recorded occurring across the Troulli Inlier, including: the Eastern Gossan Hill (directly to the south of the Troulli Mine pit); the gossan at Kokkinopetra; small gossans at Mavromoutti (300m east of Troulli Mine); and at Kokkinomoutti.
Drilling Techniques and Hole Spacing
The Mineral Resource Estimates includes information from 72 diamond and open hole percussion drillholes, totalling 3,393.30 metres and 208 trench channels for 692.17 metres.
Drill core diameter was PQ and HQ, depending upon depth. Double tube type was used for the diamond drilling. Some of the diamond core has been orientated. The open hole percussion drilling used a drill bit size of 20 cm / 8 inches.
Drilling within the hard rock area ranges from approximately 15-15 m x 30×30 m centres within the most densely tested area situated in the central area with several step-out put holes designed to explore for further mineralisation.
The dump areas have channel samples every 5 m along an excavated trench with a total of 11 trenches. The trenches are centred between 15 and 40 m apart.
The distribution of drillholes within the hard rock area is sufficient to establish the degree of geological and grade continuity appropriate for classification of Inferred and Indicated resources as defined by the JORC Code (2012).
The distribution of trench channel sampling within the dumps area is sufficient to establish the degree of geological and grade continuity appropriate for a JORC (2012) Inferred classification of resources.
Sampling and Sub-Sampling Techniques
Within the hard rock area, diamond drill core and percussion chips were used to obtain samples for geological logging and sampling. Diamond drilling geological and analytical data is recorded into excel, with recovery and RQD data recorded on paper at the drill site. Percussion chips were logged on paper at the drill site.
The whole drillhole is routinely sampled and intervals measure approximately 1 m, half core in the diamond holes and percussion riffle splits for two metres. Samples typically weigh between approximately 0.5-3kg, with half core and chip sub-samples retained for reference.
Trench channel samples within the dumps, were vertical channels, cut into the wall of an excavated trench (revealing the various dump horizons). Samples were dictated by the horizons and were generally a metre in length. The channel was around 10 cm in width, 5 cm in depth and weighed between 3-5 kg per sample. Geological and sample data was recorded on hard copy and later digitised.
Samples were sent to ALS Seville or SGS Ankara for preparation and multi-element analysis by ICP and Au by FA. Half core, percussion and channel samples were reduced to -75um and 50g sub-samples taken for analysis.
QC samples were regularly inserted into the diamond and trench sample stream. QC samples consisted of CRMs, blank material and ¼ core field duplicates. There were no QC samples inserted into the percussion drillholes sample stream. However, subsequent riffle split duplicates have shown acceptable repeatability.
Diamond Core Recovery
A total of 1,912 diamond core recovery measurements exists in the database for the drilling with average core recovery of 97%. Core recovery is measured over run lengths.
Estimation Methodology
The database for use as input for mineral resource modelling and estimation has been validated and verified by AMS. Micromine 2022 3D geological modelling and estimation software was used for import, validation and QC verification assessment, 3D solid modelling, geostatistics and block model interpolation, grade estimation and block model reporting. Data checks include checks for overlapping and missing intervals, drill hole trace errors, missing survey data, lithology and collars.
Wireframe solid models were created for the hard rock and waste dump areas, based on lithological contacts. The wireframes were generated using Micromine’s implicit modelling functionality. Interpretation of the mineralised domains was guided by geological interpretation of the deposit incorporating lithological boundaries. Separate Copper and Gold grade domain shells representing mineralized and unmineralized material were created withing the Gossan and Breccia.
The wireframes were used to restrict a block model of cell size 10 mE x 10 mN x5 mZ in the hard rock area, based on drill spacing of ~15 m in parts of the gossan, sub blocking was used to preserve domain boundaries before being regularized to account for dilution. In the dump areas a block model with cell size 5 mE x 5 mN and variable Z was used. Using ordinary kriging Cu, Au and Ag values were interpolated on a domain-by-domain basis using incrementally larger search radii.
The resource has identified potentially economic material from surface to approximately five metres below surface within the dump areas and from surface to approximately 150 metres below within the hard rock area.
Bulk Density
The resource database contains 436 bulk density measurements within the hard rock area and 58 measurements within the dumps area. For the purpose of Mineral Resource Estimation, the following default bulk density values were assigned on a dry basis. Dump material was given a bulk density of 1.89 g/cm3; mineralized gossan, 2.14 g/cm3 and mineralized breccia, 2.36 g/cm3. For a hard rock deposit the bulk density values are low, however the gossan material is highly porous while the breccia is frequently subject to intense argillic alteration. Further bulk density measurements are advised to better understand the density of the different material types.
Classification Criteria
The Troulli deposit, has been classified as an Inferred and Indicated Mineral Resource in accordance with JORC (2012) based on a combination of drill spacing, geological confidence, grade continuity, and consideration of data quality. Indicated resources were classified in the Gossan only where drill spacing was completed on a ~15 m grid. Within the breccia further geological understanding and infill drilling is required before Indicated resources are warranted, all breccia material was classified as Inferred. All dump material was classified as Inferred.
Reasonable Prospect of Eventual Economic Extraction
Based on the orientations, thickness and depths to which the deposit has been modelled, open pit mining is the anticipated mining methodology. No pit optimization has been used to constrain the Resource at this stage as mineralization remains open laterally and use of pit optimization at this stage is considered overly conservative.
In the absence of metallurgical testwork (which is ongoing) the following parameters are assumed for all material types, for gold 95% recovery, 3% refining reduction costs, and a base gold price of $1900/oz, for copper 85% recovery and 5% smelter reductions, with a base copper price of $8000/t. Combined processing and G&A costs are envisaged to be in the region of $17/ROMt and mining by open pit in the region of $3. The following parameters indicate a break even mill cut-off grade of approximately 0.25% Cu equivalent or 0.3 g/t Gold equivalent, which seems reasonable for identifying material which has a reasonable prospect of eventual economic extraction. Silver credits are not considered in the cut-off determination and Ag is reported as a by-product only.
It is anticipated that no grade control or selective mining will be employed for the dump material which is reported as a global resource (no cut-off grade applied).
Environmental and Social Considerations
No Protected sites have been identified within the project area. It should be noted that the village of Troulloi is within less than 500 m of the mineral resource area and this may represent a permitting risk . Since the original granting of the historic Mining Lease at Troulli prior to the Turkish invasion in 1974, the village of Troulli recognised the potential economic importance of the mine to the local community. In recent years due to the close proximity of the project to the village, the Council and local leaders took the highly pragmatic and extraordinary measure of having the mine property placed under the village jurisdiction so that it may have a voice in its future development and share in the potential benefit that the project could bring to the community. To the Company’s knowledge, this is the only such project in Cyprus whereby the Community has taken such a positive and pragmatic approach to a potential future mine development.
Resource Estimate Results
The approximate tonnage, grade and contained metals reported in this Inferred and Indicated Mineral Resource Estimates are presented in the following tables. The following should be noted:
· Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
· Further exploration is required to convert Inferred Mineral Resources into Indicated Mineral Resources, as the amount of data and geological understanding increases the grade and tonnage of Mineral Resources may increase or decrease.
· The effective date is 22nd March 2022.
· All Caerus drillholes have assays for Au, however multielement (including Cu and Ag assays) remain outstanding for 15 drillholes, 12 of which are within the Resource area and mainly within the breccia domain. Logging has identified sulphides including chalcopyrite in these drillholes and it seems reasonable to ignore these drillholes (treated as null) for the estimation of Cu. Once outstanding assays are received the Resource models should be updated. The additional data may serve to increase or decrease the tonnage and grade of the mineral resource estimate.
· Values presented in the table below are generated at full precision before being rounded to two significant figures to reflect the Competent Persons view of the accuracy of the estimate. As such discrepancy may be present between individual values and totals.
· Cu Equivalent (CuEq%) is used to determine material which has a reasonable prospect of eventual economic extraction for hard rock material. CuEq% = Cu%*0.871+Au g/t. It is the opinion of the Company and the Competent Person that all elements included in the CuEq calculation (Cu and Au) have a reasonable prospect of being recovered and sold.
Table 1: Hard Rock Mineral Resource Estimates.
Company Contact: Caerus Mineral Resources plc
Martyn Churchouse
Chief Executive Officer
+44 (0)1249 782162
Bezant Resources plc
Company Contact: Colin Bird
Executive Chairman
+44 (0)20 3416 3695
