Company Information for Bezant Resources Plc

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Company Statement

Bezant (pr Bay-zant) is an AIM listed company specialising in natural resource exploration and development, with a principal focus on [early-stage] projects in key commodity sectors. It takes its name from a medieval gold, silver and copper coin, regarded as being of the highest quality and used for trade and commerce throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and beyond.

The company currently has interests in two exciting assets: a copper-gold porphyry project in the Philippines (the Mankayan Project) and a gold project in Tanzania (the Mkurumu Project).

Current Operations

Philippines     
The Philippines is the fifth-most endowed country in the world in terms of mineral resources and is home to some of the world’s biggest under-exploited deposits of gold and copper. It also benefits from one of the most liberal mining regimes in the region. The Mining Act of 1995 allows for 100% foreign-equity participation through Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAAs) with local miners. In addition, the Filipino government has in recent years sought to promote foreign mining investment by providing various tax and non-tax incentives and has established the Mineral Development Council to assist foreign investors in expediting access to mining projects.

Mining investment in the country has steadily increased in recent years, with the Filipino Chamber of Mines forecasting an estimated US$1.55 billion of mining investment in 2008 and US$2.76 billion in 2009 (compared with an estimated US$350 million in 2007). The Chamber, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau predict that the contribution of mining exports to the Philippines’ total export figures will continue to increase year-on-year over at least the next three to five years.

Mankayan Project
The Guinaoang porphyry copper/gold deposit (The Mankayan Project) is situated in the Mankayan-Lepanto mining district of the Philippines, an area of established copper and gold mining and considered to be one of the country’s major porphyry copper belts. The Mankayan-Lepanto area has been mined for centuries and is accessible by both road and air.

The deposit is located approximately 240km north of Manila and 6km east of the copper/gold mine owned and operated by Lepanto Consolidated Mining. Since its discovery in the early 1970s, extensive drilling (more than 45,000 metres in 48 holes) and metallurgical work has been undertaken by Goldfields Asia Ltd, Pacific Falkon and others.

Based on historical analysis of 33,000 metres of drilling, the resource is estimated to be more than 166 million tonnes, with 1.9 billion pounds of copper and 2.9 million ounces of gold.

In 1996, Crescent Mining and Development Corporation, a Filipino company in which Bezant’s wholly-owned subsidiary Asean Copper Investments Limited holds a 40% interest (with the right to acquire the remaining 60% for minimal consideration), was granted a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) in relation to the property. The MPSA – essentially the equivalent of a mining licence – covers an area of 534 hectares.

The overall budgeted cost for the program is US$3,000,000.

Tanzania     
Tanzania has in recent times emerged as a prominent African gold producer and is now the continent’s third-largest gold-producing country after South Africa and Ghana. Moreover, the country is thought to have Africa’s second-largest gold reserves (after South Africa) and has proven gold reserves in excess of 36 Moz (1000t). Gold exploration grew rapidly in the late 1990s, with particular investigation focused on the greenstone belts around Lake Victoria – a region that now hosts several “world class” deposits. The Tanzanian government’s Development Vision 2025 projects that the mining sector will account for 10% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025.

The Mining Act 1998 provides the framework for tenure to Tanzanian mining areas and shares many features with mining regimes common in developed countries.

Tanzania s well-developed system of mining laws, as well as the absence of any mandatory state or local equity participation in Tanzanian mining ventures, makes the country an attractive destination for foreign mining investment.

Mkurumu Project
The Mkurumu Project is located in eastern Tanzania, approximately 125 km south-west of Dodoma. Although not as extensively explored as the Lake Victoria region to the north of the country, a number of potentially exploitable gold concentrations were discovered in eastern Tanzania prior to the 1970s, many of which have been subject to little subsequent work. The Mkurumu Project is covered by a Prospecting Licence encompassing an area of approximately 43.39 square kilometers and has well-established accessibility via regional roads and tracks that are linked to sealed highways leading east to the coast and main ports.

The Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Anglo Tanzania Gold Limited (“ATGL”) owns a 46% interest in the Mkurumu Project, having earned that interest pursuant to a joint venture agreement with Ashanti Exploration Tanzania (a subsidiary of Anglo Gold Ashanti), which also holds a 46% interest. The remaining 8% of the project is held by local Tanzanian interests. ATGL has full operational control of the drilling and exploration programme for the project.

In the first half of 2007 ATGL completed first-phase drilling on the project area, involving 12 diamond drill holes resulting in a total of 1,041 metres of core. A detailed soil geochemical sampling programme covering the entire licence area has subsequently been undertaken, with a view to pursuing identified targets in the next phase of drilling.

Geographical Spread

Philippines/Tanzania

Board of Directors and Key Management

Major Shareholders

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