29 September 2017

Bezant Resources Plc

("Bezant" or the "Company")

Interim Results for the Six Months Ended 30 June 2017

Bezant (AIM: BZT), the AIM quoted gold and platinum mining company, announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017.

Highlights:

Platinum and Gold Mining Project, Choco District, Colombia:

·      Recovered first gold and platinum metals, working closely with local services partner Exumax S.A.S ("Exumax")

·      Project's economics established

o Rapidly establishing production economics for the FKJ-083 licence area, correlating the historic mining data from previous third party operations with current exploration and processing results

o  Independent analysis of production sensitivities via scoping study commissioned from INGEX Grupo Minero SAS ("INGEX") which reported estimated total production costs of US$768/oz for platinum and gold recoveries

·      Acquisition of environmentally friendly production capability

o   Acquired and mobilised to site a fully-equipped, purpose built modern mercury-free alluvial processing plant, being;

§ capable of processing up to 100m³ of material per hour (approximately 150 tonnes per hour); and

§ first modern plant of its kind to be utilised on the deposit

o   Secured full plant engineering blue prints, technical plans, schematics and data to enable Bezant to replicate and manufacture similar processing plants in Colombia

o   Commissioned the processing plant in June 2017 in preparation for first production in Q3 2017

Corporate:

·      £1.2m expenditure on the Choco platinum-gold project's development programme including the above mentioned plant acquisition and exercising of certain licence options

·      £1.0m raised before expenses in March 2017, through a placement of 100,000,000 new ordinary shares with certain new and existing investors, at a price of 1.0 pence per share

Post Period End

·      A further £585,000 raised (before expenses) in early July 2017 through a placement and subscription for, in aggregate, 68,823,529 new ordinary shares by certain new and existing investors, at a price of 0.85 pence per share

·      Approximately £160,000 of certain accrued unpaid director, senior management and consultancy fees and salaries satisfied via the issue of, in aggregate, 12,359,642 new ordinary shares at a price of 1.2976 pence per share in early August 2017 in order to conserve cash reserves within the Company and maximise the funds available for the group's  operations

·      In July 2017, Registro Unico de Comercializadores de Minerales ("RUCOM") was received from the Colombian National Mining Agency (ANM - Agencia Nacional de Mineria) enabling the sale of platinum and gold to regulated metals trading houses both in Colombia and internationally

·      Peterhouse Corporate Finance Limited appointed as a Broker to the Company 

·      Production commenced at the Choco Project

o  Extraction and processing on the FKJ-083 licence area from the lower-grade upper layers of  gravels, tailings and overburden

o  Sale achieved of first kilogramme of gold and platinum metals produced from the Choco Project

o  Pit development works to access the 'virgin' higher-grade lower level gravels for processing by mid-October 2017

·      Exploration programme ongoing on the HGE-082 licence area with respect to assessing the potential for future mining, involving test pitting and sampling activities, with results expected by Q4 2017 

Commenting today, Bernard Olivier, CEO of Bezant, said:

"During the period under review, we undertook the necessary preparations to enable the commencement of gold-platinum recovery operations at the group's wholly owned Choco Project in Western Colombia.  Following this solid ground work, involving the commitment of over £1 million to the project's operations  during the first half of 2017, Bezant is now successfully mining gold and platinum in Colombia. Our first precious metals have been sold and we are currently seeking to access the deeper levels of alluvial gravels where significantly higher grades are expected to be encountered.  I look forward to providing further updates on our progress on the ground in due course."

For further information, please contact:

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.

Chairman's Statement

I am pleased to present the group's unaudited interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2017 and to report on the Company's ongoing activities to the date of this statement.  Reflecting our ongoing activities, the unaudited consolidated results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2017 show a loss after tax of £1,006,000 (31 December 2016: £1,180,000; 30 June 2016: £8,865,000).

The first half of 2017 saw everyone involved in Bezant's Choco Project focus entirely on the preparatory work required to enable commencement of gold and platinum production on site in Colombia. Working closely with experienced local operational partners, Exumax S.A.S. ("Exumax"), the Company has ensured that shareholder funds have been efficiently deployed into building cash flow from gold and platinum mining operations. This essential work culminated in our first commercial production of gold and platinum metals with initial sales being achieved in Q3 2017. Mining on this first licence area, in addition to building cash flow, is key to us better understanding the production profile and thereby refining our business model in order to roll out planned further production plants across the more than 2,600 licenced hectares, in which the Company is currently interested, covering the extensive gold-platinum placer fields in the Choco region, where platinum was first discovered in the 19th Century.  

The beginning of the year saw us working with Exumax to complete a series of surface and near-surface exploration activities on the FKJ-083 licence area. This area was previously mined by third parties between 2007 and 2012 and the Bezant-Exumax work programme focussed on correlating test open pit results with the historic mining and geological reports and platinum and gold recoveries. A large trial pit was completed over two phases with a total of 25,000m³ of material being excavated during the first stage alone.

Within the period, we also reported the results from a total of 105 samples of alluvial material collected and processed through the pilot sampling plant. Concentrates from this operation were subsequently treated and analysed through the Company's onsite, mercury free, platinum and gold recovery laboratory. Combined platinum and gold grades of over 300mg/m³ were achieved from shallow virgin platinum and gold bearing gravels. Although selected tailings' samples did return grades of over 100mg/m³ the average grade for the tailings sampled was 30mg/m³ which served to confirm and support the Company's view that treatment of the historic tailings dumps is likely to be uneconomic unless it forms part of the overburden located on virgin platinum and gold bearing gravels.

The grades achieved and test pitting analysis confirmed the historic third party reported grades and conditions encountered during historical mining operations and Bezant therefore proceeded to commission an independent cost analysis and scoping study on the project. This study was conducted by mining consultancy, INGEX Grupo Minero S.A.S., located in Medellin, Colombia, and its findings, announced in March 2017, supported our decision to commence production operations at Choco.

In March 2017, following completion of the abovementioned key workstreams, Bezant successfully raised £1m gross in order to fund certain option payments with respect to Mining Licences in Colombia, begin mine development and augment its working capital position.

Further to the positive recovery results from test pitting and the results of the independent scoping study, Bezant proceeded to exercise one of its existing options over two alluvial platinum and gold licences, namely FKJ-083 and HCA-082, in Colombia (the "Licences") (the "Option"). The Option was held by Bezant's wholly owned Colombian subsidiary, Ulloa Recursos Naturales SAS ("Ulloa"). Pursuant to the terms of the agreements relating to the acquisition of Ulloa's parent company, Leeward Islands Exploration LLC, in January 2016, the exercise price payable by Bezant to acquire the Licences was, in aggregate, US$300,000, with the first US$100,000 being paid within the period on serving the notice of exercise and the balance payable on or before 5 December 2017.

Having secured the Licences, Bezant then swiftly completed the acquisition of its first fully-equipped, purpose built, modern alluvial processing plant which was already situated in Colombia and ready for mobilisation to site, via the acquisition of Kellstown Investments Corp in early June 2017 for initial consideration comprising a cash payment of US$200,000 and the issue of 25 million new ordinary shares and deferred consideration of a further 15 million new ordinary shares payable when the plant has for 10 consecutive work days processed 900m³ of material per day.  The mercury-free alluvial processing plant is capable of processing up to 100m³ of material per hour (approximately 150 tonnes per hour) and is the first modern plant of its kind to be utilised on the deposit. As part of our plan to eventually operate multiple low cost plants, we also acquired all of the technical material and data to enable us to manufacture additional low cost plants within Colombia itself in the future.

Post the reporting period end, we entered into a rapid mobilisation and commissioning stage and, at the time of writing, we have successfully sold our first kilogramme of precious metals production from the Choco Project to a Colombian commodity trading house and expect to shortly commence mining of the higher-grade, virgin, lower level gravels. Ramp-up will continue throughout the last quarter of 2017 as we extract, process and analyse the results of the deeper level, higher-grade alluvial gravels and we look forward to providing further updates in due course.

Mr Edward Nealon

Non-Executive Chairman

28 September 2017

Group Statement of Comprehensive Income

For the six months ended 30 June 2017

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

For the six months ended 30 June 2017

Consolidated Balance Sheet

As at 30 June 2017

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

For the six months ended 30 June 2017

Notes to the interim financial information

For the six months ended 30 June 2017

The amount of capitalised exploration and evaluation expenditure relates to 11 licences comprising the Eureka Project which are located in north-west Jujuy near to the Argentine border with Bolivia and are formally known as Mina Eureka, Mina Eureka II, Mina Gino I, Mina Gino II, Mina Mason I, Mina Mason II, Mina Julio I, Mina Julio II, Mina Paul I and Mina Paul II, covering, in aggregate, an area in excess of approximately 5,500 hectares and accessible via a series of gravel roads. All licences remains valid and in good standing.

The directors have assessed the value of the intangible assets, and in their opinion, based on a review of the expiry dates of licences, expected available funds and the intention to continue exploration and evaluation, no impairment is necessary.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW REPORT BY THE AUDITORS

TO BEZANT RESOURCES PLC

Introduction

We have been engaged by the Company to review the condensed financial information in the interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 which comprises the Group Statement of Comprehensive Income, the Group Statement of Changes in Equity, the Group Balance Sheet, the Group Cash Flow Statement and the related notes.  We have read the other information contained in the interim results and considered whether it contains any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the information in the condensed set of financial statements.

Directors' Responsibilities

The interim results are the responsibility of, and have been approved by, the directors. The directors are responsible for preparing the interim results in accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies.

As disclosed in note 1, the annual financial statements of the Group will be prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union. The condensed set of financial statements included in the interim results has been prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34, Interim Financial Reporting, as adopted by the European Union.

Our Responsibility

Our responsibility is to express to the Company a conclusion on the condensed set of financial statements in the interim results based on our review.

Scope of review

We conducted our review in accordance with the International Standard on Review Engagements (UK and Ireland) 2410, Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity, issued by the Auditing Practices Board for use in the United Kingdom. A review of interim financial information consists of making enquiries, primarily of persons responsible for financial and accounting matters, and applying analytical and other review procedures. A review is substantially less in scope than an audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) and consequently does not enable us to obtain assurance that we would become aware of all significant matters that might be identified in an audit. Accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion.

Emphasis of matters Going concern

We have considered the adequacy of the going concern disclosures made in note 1 to the financial statements concerning the Group's ability to continue as a going concern. The Group incurred an operating loss of £1m during the period ended 30 June 2017 and is still incurring losses. As discussed in note 1, the Group has raised £585,000 before expenses post period end but will need to raise further funds in order to meet its budgeted operating costs. These conditions, along with other matters discussed in note 1 indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the Group's ability to continue as a going concern. The interim results do not include the adjustments (such as impairment of assets) that would result if the Group were unable to continue as a going concern.

Conclusion

Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the condensed financial statements in the interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34 as adopted by the European Union and the AIM Rules for Companies.

UHY Hacker Young LLP

Chartered Accountants

Registered Auditors

London

28 September 2017