TIDMBZT
RNS Number : 4691L
Bezant Resources PLC
06 September 2023
6 September 2023
Bezant Resources Plc
("Bezant" or the "Company")
Results from Phase 2 Metallurgical Test Work on Kanye Manganese
Sample, Botswana
and Update on Hope and Gorob Project, Namibia
Bezant (AIM: BZT) is pleased to provide information on further
positive results of Phase 2 metallurgical testing carried out by
Wardell Armstrong International ('WAI') on a sample from its' 100%
owned Kanye manganese exploration project in Botswana. The primary
objectives of the testwork were to optimise the leaching conditions
to achieve high manganese recoveries at more economical conditions
relative to the previous phase of testwork and to benchmark the
project against other manganese projects.
Highlights:
-- Phase 2 work followed on from previous metallurgical testing
conducted by WAI, and reported in July 2023, aiming to optimise
manganese recovery from the 'Moshaneng' sample whilst minimising
the reagent consumption rates to improve process economics.
-- Sulphuric acid leaching optimisation testwork found that
manganese recoveries of 99.5% were achievable at moderate process
conditions, specifically 60degC leaching temperature, 300kg/t of
sulphur dioxide addition, and 284kg/t of sulphuric acid
consumption.
-- Grind size had minimal influence on the final manganese
recovery with 88.0% and 88.3% manganese recovery achieved for feed
material particle size distributions of 80% passing 200um and 80%
passing 150um respectively.
-- Leaching temperature had negligible effect on the final
manganese recovery with 88.0% and 89.5% manganese recovery achieved
for leach temperatures of 60degC and 90degC respectively.
-- Leach kinetics of manganese recovery were dependant on the
sulphur dioxide addition rate. Sulphur dioxide introduced
incrementally, demonstrated a staged manganese recovery.
-- A Benchmark Project Review was carried out on three recent
manganese projects which were identified as having a similar
geographical location and/or producing final products of a similar
specification.
o Giyani Metals K.Hill Project Botswana;
o Manganese X Energy Corp. Battery Hill Project Canada;
o Euro Manganese Inc. Chvaletice Project Czech Republic;
-- The Kanye manganese deposit demonstrates an excellent overall
manganese recovery using moderate leaching conditions compared with
benchmarked projects.
-- The Kanye deposit composite showed a negligible increase in
manganese leaching performance at elevated temperatures, which is a
favourable outcome from an OPEX perspective.
-- Having established that the Kanye mineralisation is
potentially suitable for processing to high purity manganese, the
Company will now press on with planning for further exploration at
the project to expand the footprint of the deposit and advance
towards resource definition. Further metallurgical test work will
be considered at a later stage of project advancement.
Colin Bird, Executive Chairman of Bezant, commented :
" WAI Group was engaged to carry out this work, the results of
which are pivotal to the Kanye manganese project. The results in
essence verify that manganese can be extracted from the deposit to
produce leach solutions with high manganese concentrations via
standard leaching processing technologies with extremely high
recoveries.
This is an excellent result and we will now fast track our
preliminary economic assessment, whilst progressing our resource
definition by further drilling and modelling. We will keep the
market updated as results are received "
Kanye Phase 2 Metallurgical Test Work
Wardell Armstrong International (WAI) was commissioned by Bezant
Resources Ltd to undertake a second phase of metallurgical testing
on a manganese sample from the Kanye manganese deposit,
Botswana.
This work followed on from previous metallurgical testing
reported by WAI in July 2023 to assess the amenability of a single
manganese sample to sulphuric acid leaching, where manganese
recoveries of up to 99.4% were achievable at high reagent addition
rates.
The primary objective of the testwork was to optimise the
leaching conditions to achieve high manganese recoveries at more
economical conditions relative to the previous phase of testwork.
Encompassed within these leaching tests was the evaluation of the
amenability to leach a variety of other elements that will
influence the flowsheet economics of producing high-purity
manganese sulphate monohydrate.
Testing was undertaken on the same sample used during the first
phase of testwork, to optimise reagent consumptions during the acid
leach. Additionally, a larger suite of elements were tracked over
the course of the kinetic leach to benchmark impurity levels for
downstream purification economics. Finally, a benchmark review of
other manganese projects was conducted to determine how the project
sits from a metallurgical perspective on a global scale. A
benchmark data review was conducted on the results obtained from
both the first and second phase of testwork against a variety of
other manganese projects with the intention of producing final
products of similar specifications.
Many manganese projects in the African region tend to produce a
manganese concentrate which is subsequently transported to a
manganese refinery. These projects were not chosen to be referenced
in the benchmark review as the flowsheet would not be
comparable.
Head Assay
In addition to chemical analysis carried out in the Phase 1
testwork, further analysis was performed on the sample to determine
the grades of a range of elements that were deemed to affect the
operational cost of a battery grade manganese product purification
flowsheet. The analysis was performed on a representative
sub-sample which had been crushed and pulverised to 100% passing
75um. The analysis was conducted by an aqua regia digest with an
ICP-OES finish for manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and
iron. For aluminium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium
analysis was conducted by a lithium borate fusion with an ICP-OES
finish.
A summary of the head assay data is given in the Table
below:
Head Assay
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Description Mn Cu Ni Co Zn Fe Al Ca Mg K Na
--------------------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------
%
--------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Head 10.98 0.003 0.29 0.010 0.006 4.81 1.26 0.68 0.46 0.28 0.066
===================== ====== ====== ===== ====== ====== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ======
Leaching Testwork
Sulphuric acid leaching testwork was conducted on the
'Moshaneng' sample to optimise manganese recovery whilst attempting
to reduce the reagent consumptions. Solid and aqueous sample
streams were subjected to manganese analysis via ICP-OES, with a
combination of aqua regia and lithium borate digestion as the
sample preparation methods for the solid phase.
A summary of the whole ore acid leaching test results is given
in the following Table:
Whole Ore Acid Leach Test Results
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test ID Grind Size SO(2) Addition pH Final Mn Final H(2)
(D(80) ) Recovery SO(4) Consumption
--------- ----------- --------------- ---- ---------- -------------------
um kg/t % kg/t
--------- ----------- --------------- ---- ---------- -------------------
ALT7 200 300 1.5 88.0 284
--------- ----------- --------------- ---- ---------- -------------------
ALT8 150 300 1.5 88.3 284
--------- ----------- --------------- ---- ---------- -------------------
ALT9 200 250 1.5 83.3 319
--------- ----------- --------------- ---- ---------- -------------------
ALT10 200 300 1.5 89.5 325
---- ---------- -------------------
ALT11 200 300* 1.5 99.5 284
---- ---------- -------------------
ALT12 200 400* 1.5 99.5 348
========= =========== =============== ==== ========== ===================
* Sodium metabisulphite was added at eight hourly intervals as
opposed to a single addition at the beginning of the leaching
experiment.
Benchmark Metallurgical Review
A benchmark review of global manganese projects was conducted to
determine how the metallurgical performance compares to other
projects. The Kanye deposit demonstrates a comparable manganese
recovery to other manganese projects.
A summary of the leach conditions and results is given in the
Table below:
Benchmark Acid Leaching Conditions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project Temperature SO(2) Addition H(2) SO(4) Mn Recovery
Consumption
-------------- ------------ --------------- ------------- ------------
degC kg/t kg/t %
-------------- ------------ --------------- ------------- ------------
Kanye-ALT11 60 300 284 99.5
-------------- ------------ --------------- ------------- ------------
K.Hill 90 261 119 99.0
-------------- ------------ --------------- ------------- ------------
Battery Hill 60 54 470 91.0
-------------- ------------ --------------- ------------- ------------
Chvaletice 90 No addition 465 77.2
============== ============ =============== ============= ============
WAI Conclusions
Sulphuric Acid Leach Testwork
-- Sulphuric acid leaching optimisation testwork found that
manganese recoveries of 99.5% were achievable at moderate process
conditions, specifically 60degC leaching temperature, 300kg/t of
sulphur dioxide addition, and 284kg/t of sulphuric acid
consumption;
-- Grind size had minimal influence on the final manganese
recovery with 88.0% and 88.3% manganese recovery achieved for feed
material particle size distributions of 80% passing 200um and 80%
passing 150um respectively. The same relationship is observed for
most of the other elements tracked during the testwork;
-- Leaching temperature had negligible effect on the final
manganese recovery with 88.0% and 89.5% manganese recovery achieved
for leach temperatures of 60degC and 90degC respectively. The same
relationship is observed for most of the other elements tracked
during the testwork;
-- Leach kinetics of manganese recovery were dependant on the
sulphur dioxide addition rate. Sulphur dioxide introduced
incrementally, demonstrated a staged manganese recovery. This is
consistent with phase 1 testwork that showed manganese recovery was
dependant on the sulphur dioxide addition;
-- Other elements were less dependent on sulphur dioxide
addition, due to lack of requirement to be oxidised, specifically
copper, nickel, iron, and magnesium. Calcium, potassium, and
aluminium still showed a positive leaching performance by adopting
a staged sulphur dioxide addition rate; and
-- Acid consumption is directly related to the sulphur dioxide
addition rate. Sulphur dioxide is consumed to oxidise manganese,
and acid is then consumed to form the aqueous manganese sulphate
salt. A strong relationship is observed between all these
variables.
Benchmark Project Review
-- Three recent manganese projects were identified as having a
similar geographical location and/or producing final products of a
similar specification.
-- Giyani Metals K.Hill Project Botswana;
-- Manganese X Energy Corp. Battery Hill Project Canada;
-- Euro Manganese Inc. Chvaletice Project Czech Republic;
-- The primary mineralogical component of the Kanye manganese
deposit is quartz with the primary manganese component pyrolusite.
The two primary mineralogical phases of the K.Hill manganese
deposit are manganese mineralisation in the form of cryptomelane
and bixbyite. The primary mineralogical phase of the Battery Hill
manganese deposit across two locations is manganese-iron silicates.
The Chvaletice manganese project is different due to the project
being a tailings facility so the primary mineralogical phase is
quartz with the main manganese component being albite;
-- The Kanye manganese deposit demonstrates an excellent overall
manganese recovery using moderate leaching conditions compared with
benchmarked projects;
-- Sulphur dioxide and sulphuric acid consumption is slightly
higher than the K.Hill project however is carried out at a
significantly lower leaching temperature;
-- Acid consumption with a global comparison falls within the
'moderate' classification, however, sulphur dioxide addition is
high on a global comparison;
-- Kanye PLS impurity concentrations were similar to the K.Hill
and the Chvaletice for copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc. Iron and
aluminium concentrations were lower compared to the K.Hill deposit.
Finally, base metals such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium
showed higher concentrations than the K.Hill project. However,
potassium products have good commercial value and have the
potential to be isolated and sold as a by-product for additional
value; and
-- K.Hill and Chvaletice flowsheet demonstrate alternative
processing circuits for producing manganese products. Chvaletice
uses magnetic separation to pre-concentrate prior to acid leaching
whereas the K.Hill flowsheet does not. The Chvaletice flowsheet
produce two saleable manganese products, high-purity manganese
sulphate monohydrate and high-purity electrolytic manganese metal,
whereas K.Hill opts to produce high-purity manganese sulphate
monohydrate only.
Update on the Hope and Gorob project in Namibia
The Company has received the final draft of a revised mineral
resource statement in relation to the Hope and Gorob project from
Addison Mining Services and is working with Addison Mining Services
on an announcement regarding the revised mineral resource statement
which it anticipates announcing shortly.
For further information, please contact:
Bezant Resources Plc
Colin Bird
Executive Chairman +44 (0)20 3416 3695
Beaumont Cornish (Nominated Adviser)
Roland Cornish / Asia Szusciak +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
Novum Securities Limited (Joint Broker)
Jon Belliss +44 (0) 20 7399 9400
Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker)
Damon Heath +44 (0) 20 7186 9952
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 pursuant to the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit)
regulations (SI 2019/310).
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
The following is a summary of technical terms:
"mineralisation" Process of formation and concentration of
elements and their chemical compounds within
a mass or body of rock
"Mn" Manganese
"MnO" Manganese oxide
"PLS" Pregnant leach solution
"shale" A fine-grained laminated sediment
"SO(2) " Sulphur dioxide
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