Promising data thrown up by Gold Fields' due diligence on Bezant Resources' (LON:BZT)Mankayan gold project will help the firm find a potential buyer or partner for the deposit, reckons broker N+1 Singer.
Last month, Gold Fields decided not to exercise its option over Mankayan in the Philippines but Bezant still had the right to receive all data generated by them.
Work on Bezant's existing data showed an extension of known mineralisation at the project - with an additional hole confirming that mineralisation was present up to the end of the 1,491m hole, representing an increase of more than 200m from the previously known depth.
A high grade zone of 342m was identified from 692m that contained an average copper grade of 0.6% and an average gold grade of 1.01 grammes a tonne.
Mankayan has JORC compliant probable ore reserve of 189 million tonnes with grades of 0.46% copper and 0.49g/t gold.
The broker previously valued Mankayan at £39.7mln which was the proposed disposal price to Gold Fields less tax on the profit.
"In our view the project fundamentals have not changed and we continue to value it at the proposed disposal price less tax on any deal. However we now prudently assume a 50% risk of no immediate disposal taking place, hence we reduce our current valuation of Mankayan to £19.8m," said analyst Shamim Mansoor.
The broker's valuation of Bezant is £26mln, or 31.4p a share (current share price: 10.875p).
"In our view yesterday’s announcement and the additional promising data to support the JORC defined reserve will help Bezant in its attempts to identify new potential acquirers and/or partners for the Mankayan project," added the analyst.